Silent Stars
by DomesticatedInsanity
Summary: You don't realize how important speaking is until you can't. You don't realize how important being human is until you aren't.
1. The Silent and The Dragon

_Ladies and Gents, this is my first Fanfiction. As I write this I am up to chapter 13, and nearly verging on completing chapter 14. I have realized by reading back through this story is that I need to touch up and flesh out my earlier chapters a lil bit. Which I will do later. I don't do author notes that much, because there usually isn't much to say. That said, please enjoy_.

* * *

 _Hm. Not much to do in Hargeon_. Lucy mused to herself as she walked the cobblestone path out of the port city.

She had managed to find a new gate key though.

She would have to find some work soon. The gate key had set her back 10 thousand jewel, and she was still travelling.

Maybe I should find a guild.

 _How?_ Another part of her spat. _How will you find a guild? you can't even speak._

Her steps wavered _. I will find a way_. The thought firmly as she continued. _I wasn't Lucky Lucy for nothing._

She looked up into the night sky. It was one of the things she never got tired of. seeing all of the spirits and celestials in the heavens.

Her cloak fluttered around her in the breeze, her hood still pulled up, her practical cloths worn and a bit faded. Seeing the hole in her sleeve made her realize how battered they were. _Add new cloths to the expenses_. she huffed.

She was getting tired. Just a bit more.

Something caught her eye in the distance, a dull light between the trees, but light none the less.

Curious, but also cautious, she pulled out Taurus' key, fully wrapped her black cloak around her and carefully made her way to the light.

She avoided stepping on leafs and sticks, being careful of tree roots, all hard learned lessons from other less successful sneakings.

She peered around a tree trunk and saw...

...a clearing, with nothing but a roaring bonfire in the middle.

No footsteps, no tents or bedrolls. No evidence of human life.

 _Creepy._

She put away Tauros' key and pulled out a silver key instead. She let her magic flow, and turned the key.

The bonfire overshadowed magic's light, but Plu still appeared none the less.

Lucy pointed to her eyes, then swept her finger over the clearing. Plu got the idea and started searching, wobbling around the clearing. He gave the thumbs up and vanished.

Lucy sighed in relief. Plu hadn't been hurt, and they were both safe.

She liked the little spirit. He wasn't hard to communicate with. Even though neither of them could speak.

Lucy stepped into the clearing. Her eyes swept it and settled on a rock to lay on. one that was not too close to the fire.

She took off her very small backpack and placed it on the rock. Her pillow.

She lay down slowly. She made sure her dagger was loose in its sheath and exactly where she could reach it. Dagger on her left hip, Keys on her right.

She wrapped her cloak around her properly and looked up to the stars, laying her head on her lumpy pillow.

A small sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

An explosion crackled around her, waking her in an instant, drawing both knife and Taurose's Key.

She saw several people, people on fire, some casting spells at the fire, some rushing towards her.

Before they reached her a scaly claw shot out of the fire and swiped at them, sending them flying.

 _What...?_ She paled at the sight of it.

An inhuman roar bellowed out of the flame and something shot out of the fire and began working through thugs at an alarming rate.

 _A...Dragon?_ It was small but ferocious.

Lucy took a good look at the people the Dragon was attacking.

Mismatched armour, worn cloths, guild mark- a cartoonish fist, Golem Fist. A local guild, mercenaries and bounty hunters.

 _They must be here for me. Was this dragon here all along? Should I run?_

The rest of the Golem Fist members grouped together, and were casting strong magics.

The spells crashed against scales, forcing the creature back.

Three magic circles appeared in front of one of the mercenaries and the spell boomed and crashed against the dragon.

As the dust cleared, She saw the dragon get to it's feet slowly, like a wounded cat.

The bonfire was nothing but embers, casting an evil glow on the dragon, the size of a large tiger, looking like the twisted combination of a cheetah and a lizard.

Until it opened its wings, looking like a thing out of hell.

It turned and rushed at her with blinding speed.

Her eyes widened in fear. Her feet couldn't move.

She was Paralyzed.

 _I should have run. And I can't even scream._

It leapt at her.

The wind was knocked out of her chest as it impacted with her and she felt something wrap around her chest.

She felt her feet leave the ground and saw the trees start to shrink

It was carrying her.

The wind battered her as she held on to the dragon's claws, squinting to see and clutching her dagger and key tightly.

She felt it bank steeply and came around to face the clearing where the mercenaries fumbled or stared in awe.

The dragon growled and started to heat up, inhaling deeply.

It's maw opened and a bright flame burned in its mouth.

A rough and growling voice boomed through the night.

 **"FIRE DRAGON ROAAAAAAAAAR!"**

Fire shot out of the dragon's mouth and streamed towards earth with such ferocity.

The flames roared and flickered, dancing through the trees.

It was beautiful but terrifying.

The dragon wheeled and rocketed away.

Lucy saw the forest whoosh by, passing two towns and a castle ruins on the way.

When they reached a mountain cave by a lake surrounded by forest, the dragon swooped right into the cave.

Lucy went sprawling as she was released, dagger and key flying out of her hands.

The dragon crashed into the wall, and collapsed. Out cold.

Lucy picked herself up and stared at the dragon.

 _What happened? It all happened so fast. The dragon saved me...But how and why is there a dragon here? They were extinct! What? How?_

As she surveyed the creature she saw something that looked odd.

A black thorn dug in its side.

 _Multitasking it is._

She picked up Taurose's key and her dagger, stowing them away and drawing out Crux's key.

They key glowed and the wizened spirit appeared in front of her.

"What may I do for you my dear?"

Lucy pointed towards the dragon.

"Oh my." Crux opened his eyes all the way open to stare at the dragon.

 _Tell me about it._

"It appears to be in poor form. I assume you would like to help it?"

Lucy nodded.

"Very well. I shall guide you through the process. You will be using the Five Star Remedy. Please be careful."

She got up and walked over to the dragon, the spirit following her.

* * *

Natsu's eye opened just a hair as he looked around himself.

He was in a dimly lit cave.

 _I must have gone beast again._

The girl was still there.

He had watched her from inside his bonfire as she carefully surveyed the clearing.

Her luminous chocolate coloured eyes flickering everywhere before her little snowman put his thumbs up.

What kind of magic is that?

He wanted to say something, but he wasn't done healing.

He was stuck in his shell, still stuck as a dragon.

So he waited and watched as she settled down in front of his flames.

He saw the rise and fall, her breathing.

In and out.

It was almost hypnotic, staring at her, seeing her innocent face, breathing with her.

What is it about her?

How long had he been watching her?

There was something about her.

She smelled strange.

Like...light.

But then the others showed up.

I could smell them. Filthy and dark.

They emerged from the shadows

"I told you, it's her."

"Hot damn. The Heartfelia Heiress."

"Our lucky day. Let's bag her quick and get her back to hq. Quickly."

No.

He growled and swatted the people approaching the girl.

"What the fu-" One of them got out before he went flying.

" ** _Don't you dare touch her_** " Natsu rumbled.

"Shit" A magic circle appeared in one of the men's hands.

There was a boom and he felt a pain in his side.

He swiped again and roared his anger.

His vision went red with rage, and became a beast again.

Now here she sat.

In front of her. In a cave. with him. while there was a thundering pain in his side.

He saw her throw something over her shoulder. A black thorn covered with blood.

"Do it Carefully dear." He heard a wizened old voice say.

She nodded firmly. And closed her eyes.

 _What is she doing?_

Her eyes snapped open, almost shining with a golden glow.

her arms extended and palms open, a golden magic circle appeared, a gold star in the centre.

Five balls of light emerged and the circle snapped shut.

The balls circled him slowly, a warm glow emitting from them.

Her brow furrowed in concentration as the glow got stronger.

His pain started to subside. His scales felt softer against his skin.

 _She is healing me!_

 **Crack**

 _And fixing me?_

* * *

Lucy jumped as soon as she heard the Crack.

Her concentration shot, her stars faded.

She watched, half amazed, half horrified at the scales falling off and skittering on the stone floor, the skin melting, then crumbling and vanishing into dust

When the process was done, there was a figure covered in dull red scales.

A boy with spiky pink hair.

Wearing nothing else.

Absolutely nothing...

 _No! Not now Lucy, keep it together!_ She blushed very red as she tried not to look.

The boy suddenly sat up, causing her to stumble backwards.

He yawned and looked right at her.

"Yo, thanks for the save. Got anything to eat?"

Her jaw was hanging open.

"Hey, you ok?"

Lucy nodded slowly after closing her mouth.

"Well, can you speak?" He joked.

* * *

He saw it. Her expression darkened, and he saw every emotion flash in her eyes, rage, anger, sadness, regret, sorrow, resignation.

It happened in a flash, but to a dragon slayer's senses, it seemed like forever, as plain as the words Erza and Igneel had taught him.

Her face flashed from her sorrow to a polite mask, and she slowly shook her head.

Natsu thought it was weird.

"You can't? Oh. Ok then. My name's Natsu. Can you draw your name or something?"

She watched him curiously for a second, then got a Light pen from the pouch on her hip and wrote in the air-

-L U C Y-

"Lucy eh?" He gave her a grin. "Well thanks a bunch for the star thingy!"

She scribbled furiously in the air

-The dragon was you?-

"Um, yeah. It happens to me sometimes. Just don't tell my friend huh? They don't need to know about it." He laughed "Well, you won't be able to tell them very easily right?"

She stamped her foot, her hands pressed against her sides, her fists pointing out. The very picture of an angry princess.

He laughed as she pouted.

He thought he saw a tiny smile on her face though.

* * *

 _When was the last time someone made me laugh while talking about my lack of voice?_

She couldn't think of one case.

 _He's so carefree. And yet..._

 _He's weird! He was a dragon! HE DESTROYED HALF THAT FORREST!_

He looked around us. "So where are we anyways?"

Lucy shrugged.

"How do you not know?"

-You flew us here!- She scrawled furiously.

"Oh. Whoops."

She slapped her forehead with her palm.

"Well, I'm hungry. And if I find an animal before a town, I'm going to eat it! You coming? You look like you could use a meal!" He got up and made for the exit.

Lucy got up and griped his shoulder, turning him to face her.

"Hm? what is it?"

She ran a hand over his wound. Very shallow. It was hardly bleeding.

"Yeah! I'm fine!"

She noticed he had no cloths on.

 _How do these things slip my attention?_

She stepped back and covered her eyes, feeling her face going red.

"Hm? what's the matter?"

With her free hand, she took off her cloak and offered it to him.

"Ah! right! I have no clothes on. I thought I felt a breeze."

 _I shouldn't peek, I shouldn't, but I'm so curious, I shouldn't..._

"Ok then!"

Lucy opened her eyes, slightly disappointed.

It didn't last long.

He hadn't pulled the cloak closed around him.

She saw it.

She grabbed the cloak and closed it, her face very red.

"Oh, right. My bad" He grinned.

 _He's clueless!_ She punched him in the shoulder.

"hey! what was that for?"

Lucy raised her hands in defeat as she started into the forest, and herd him grumble as he followed.

"So what were you doing in the forest?"

She raised her hand, two fingers moving back and forth.

"Walking huh? Sounds fun. So what do you do?"

She made the same motion.

"Walking? You know for someone who can't talk, you don't talk much."

She looked over her shoulder at him, a deadpan expression on her face.

His was just bored.

She rolled her eyes, whipped out her light pen and wrote

-Travelling-

"Sounds fun. Are you in a guild or anything?"

She shook her head slowly.

"It's fun, you should give it a shot."

She pointed to him.

"Me? I'm in Fairy Tail!" He exclaimed proudly.

Lucy's eyes widened.

She spun around to face him.

"Yup!" He drew his arm out of the cloak and there it was on the top of his upper arm. A red Fairy tail emblem.

"Why? you Jealous?"

She tilted her head in annoyance, spun on her heels and started to continue through the forest.

"Well, you can join if you really want."

She stopped. She turned slowly.

There was a hope in Lucy's chest that she couldn't squash.

She raised her eyebrows a little.

 _Really?_

"Yeah, really, you helped me out in a tough spot! I do owe you."

She couldn't stop herself from jumping in the air. She was grinning like a lunatic, but she didn't care.

"Heh. First time I've seen you really smile. Come on! I'm starving!"

She jogged to catch up to Natsu's pace as they raced through the woods.

Towards Fairy Tail.


	2. Fight or Run

"Finally, got my cloths back." Natsu wrapped his scarf around his neck and gave it an absentminded pet.

Lucy's cloak flew around her as she put it back on and flipped her hood over her head.

 _She looks so mysterious._

"I need to get back to happy. I've been gone too long."

Natsu saw Lucy tilt her head

"Happy. He's my best friend. Anyway, what about you? You know why those guys were after you?" Natsu asked as he brushed leafs off his backpack.

She looked away from him.

"What is it?" Natsu glanced around. Stream, lots of trees, small cliff which he had hidden his cloths and backpack. Nothing.

She didn't want to meet his eyes.

"So you do know."

Her lips were set in a grim line.

"You going to tell me?"

She shook her head.

"C'mon you can tell me." He said as he poked her cheek.

She looked at him, her eyes unamused and hard.

"Jeze, fine. Let's keep going then." He started walking

He watched her out the corner of his eye as she hastened to catch up.

She had raised her hand to her neck, there on her neck, a large scar.

 _She really can't talk huh. I wonder what happened._

This girl was strange. She had seen Natsu as a dragon, he had kidnapped her, but instead of escaping the first chance she got, she stayed. Then she healed him.

And changed him back.

She smelled like expensive perfumes, silks and velvets. But those smells were all so faint. Her more recent scents were dirt and dust, hints of sea salt. She had been to Hargeon too.

 _What is this smell? It's making it hard to smell other things from her._

 _It smells like...the sky, a shining golden sky._

The wind shifted.

The smell of men filled Natsu's nose, the scent of the men who attacked him and tried to take Lucy.

He put his hand out to stop her.

She bumped into his arm and looked at him puzzled.

"I smell them. Those guys from before."

She looked at him.

-You smell them?- She wrote with her light pen, looking at him doubtfully.

" 'corse I can. They are that way and headed for us."

Natsu pointed in front of them to the right.

She tilted her head.

Natsu could barely hear them in the distance.

-Fight or run-

"I'm a little weak right now. It's your choice. If we fight I'll need you to back me up. All right?"

* * *

 _Those eyes_

Lucy felt something stir in her. The trust, the conviction, the courage.

They had known each other for less than an hour, but he trusted her.

And she trusted him.

 _But why?_

Lucy shook her head. she couldn't think about that.

She swiped her hand through the floating text from her light pen to disperse it, grabbed him by the arm and started running.

"Right." He said, running with her.

They raced through the trees, hand in hand.

She could hear them behind them, crashing through the forest.

They knew where they were.

The hunt was on.

"These guys are pissing me off." Natsu spat.

 _You and me both._

Lucy and Natsu burst through a tree line

...and stopped.

They were facing a cliff.

"Well, looks like fighting it is." Natsu growled.

The mercenaries came bursting through the foliage, and seeing them, surrounded them.

"Nowhere to run now!"

"We found her!"

"Aww, she brought her boyfriend."

Natsu stood just in front of Lucy, not moving.

One of them stepped forwards.

He had leathery skin, hard eyes, muscles on top of muscles, and a scar that ran from his forehead to his temple.

He radiated with magic power.

"Lucy Heartfilia. You will have to come with me."

"What do you want with her?" Natsu demanded.

"Stay out of the way boy." He snarled. "I am Black Hand Regan, the Leader of Golem Fist. I could kill you easily. So come quietly."

"Oh yeah? Well I'm Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail's Salamander!"

Natsu exhaled and blew steam everywhere before taking a deep breath in.

"THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME ON? **FIRE DRAGON ROAR!** "

A stream of fire erupted from Natsu's mouth and streamed towards Golem's Fist.

 _No way, he's the legendary salamander? One of the most destructive wizards in fairy tail? He's so strong, even when he's not a dragon. So dragon Slayers can turn into dragons too?_

"I'm impressed. The legendary Salamander." A cloud of darkness wafted out of the flame stricken surroundings.

The darkness drowned out the flames, and Black Hand Regan stepped out of it. The darkness spread and dissipated the fire, revealing all the other golem fist members.

All down for the count.

"If that's all you got then this won't be fun at all." A tendril of darkness snaked out and smacked into Natsu, sending him sprawling backwards.

He got up with a growl, his hand flaming.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" He yelled as he leapt at the Shadowy figure.

 _He's so slow...He must be more tired than he was letting on._

Again Natsu was sent sprawling away.

"You are trying to protect her? Pathetic!"

Natsu roared in rage as he Boomed off his mark, rushing at the Black hand with blinding speed.

Flames boomed as Natsu flipped and landed back near Lucy.

"So you can fight! hah, this may be fun after all."

"That was Just a taste bud!" Natsu spat back.

 _His hand!_

Natsu was cradling his hand that he attacked with. It was growing scaly and his nails were starting to become talons.

He's pushing himself and he's changing again. If he keeps going he'll become a dragon again.

Lucy bit her lip.

 _I can fight._

Lucy put a hand on Natsu's Shoulder, as if keeping him there.

"Lucy?"

She stepped in front of him.

Lucy felt her power rush through her body as she called her magic up.

 _Ok now, most of my Star Spells use less magic than summoning. Let's see if I can take him with what I got._ _ **THREE STAR ARROWS!**_

Three stars shone as they appeared around her.

She let one of the stars fly, and it split into five smaller lights and rocketed towards the Black Hand.

He stumbled out of the way, the stars missing him, but piercing through the darkness.

"Damn it!" He rushed in to reduce the range she had on him.

 _Come on! Try it! Get up close! I'm not some weak little girl! Not anymore!_ _ **TWO STAR IMPACT FISTS!**_

The two remaining stars whizzed to her hands and glowed as she wrapped her hands around the stars to form fists.

The Man tried to stop and jump back

 _Too Late!_

Lucy swung her fist, clocking him in the side of his face.

The impact sending him flying, and crashing into a tree trunk.

"Dam Bish!" He yelled, his cheek swelling in a bump that was still glowing from starlight.

" **Daaknesh Shtreem!** " He held his palm out and a dark ball formed.

 _An area attack?_ _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD!**_

Lucy let them go and the stars rushed to her and Natsu, settling on the centre of their chests, a golden aura streaming out from the star and covering them.

The Black Streamed towards them, crashing over them.

Lucy could feel the strain on the stars as they repelled the attack, like the sea on a breakwater.

The stream was gone. A thick cloud of darkness still fouled the air around them.

"Tsk, I hope the heiress is still alive." The dark hand sneered.

 _Be careful what you wish for._ Lucy Thought with a predatory grin. **_THREE STAR ARROWS!_**

Another star winked into existence, and the other two stars had detached from Lucy and Natsu.

They all split up and fifteen star arrows blasted through the darkness.

"Gahhhhh!"

The darkness split and faded to wisps, revealing Black Hand Regan on his knees bleeding.

Lucy drew Taurose's key and let her magic flow. The golden magic circle appeared and Taurose Appeared in front of her.

"What can I do for ya Miss Luuuucy?"

Lucy drew her dagger and pointed it at Regan.

"If I dooo do I get a Smoooooch?"

Lucy Ignored him as she focused on summoning three more stars.

Taurose rushed in, swinging his axe at the Bounty hunter.

Darkness covered Regan's hand as he deflected the axe.

Bull spirit and Bounty hunter clashed, then separated, then clashed again.

She had three stars. _Perfect._

Suddenly Regan broke off and rushed towards Lucy, his darkness coated hand raised and open, as if to grab her.

 _BRING IT YOU DARK GUILD ASSHOLE!_

Lucy grabbed two of her stars and let the third settle on her chest.

The hand Slammed into her neck, the star's aura reducing it's force to the brush of a feather. Grey mist billowed from the meeting of light and dark.

Lucy tightened her grip on her stars, and punched him in the stomach.

She sent him punch after punch.

All of his bumps and bruises glowed faintly as she her fists kissed his body.

She forced him back until he bumped into a tree.

"ahggg, mercy! I give up! Mercy!" Regan Pleaded.

 _mercy? MERCY? Here is my mercy!_

The starlight faded from her fists. And she punched him again.

And again.

 _You were trying to take me back! I am never going back! HERE IS MY MERCY!_

* * *

Natsu stared as the Cute and Kind girl vanished.

Her face was twisted by her emotions as she hit the Bounty hunter over and over.

The pain, the rage, the fear.

"Stop Miss Luuuucy, this is too far!" The bull called to her.

She didn't seem to hear him.

A ray of sunlight filtered through the trees, illuminating the scene.

Tears Ran down Lucy's face as blood ran over her fists.

Natsu got up off his knees.

"Lucy!" He called.

She froze mid punch.

Silence.

Nothing happened.

It felt like forever before she slowly turned.

"That's enough Lucy. You've won."

She turned back stared at her hands.

She looked at Natsu again and she started to shake.

Her expression broke down into a horrified look as she sobbed, then covered her face with her hands.

He strode over to her and put an arm on her shoulder.

She flinched away at first, but then she looked into Natsu's face and started to cry harder.

She grabbed him and cried against his chest.

Natsu put his arms around her, holding her tightly.

"Come on now, you're safe."

She cried until she ran out of breath.


	3. Calm night

Not too much action in this chapter. Thank you to those who reviewed and gave feedback. Any feedback you would like to give would be appreciated.  
Also, not sure if Italics work properly on mobile devices, may just be my phone. sooo, meh. Well, on with it.

* * *

"You feeling any better?"

Lucy nodded slowly. her eyes still red.

 _How long was I crying for? When was the last time I had done that? I haven't felt someone's arms around me since..._

 _My mother._

Lucy sniffled as she tried to regain her composure.

"Come on, I hear the stream."

She let him lead her through the bushes and trees as she thought.

 _I did it again. I could have killed the man._

She glanced at Natsu as he gently guided her, his hand lightly resting on her shoulder.

 _Why is he so calm about this? I just..._

"Here we are."

Lucy snapped back to reality.

A camp site, a river running along one side, running off the cliff, becoming a waterfall that threw off tiny water droplets.

She crouched down to the river and dipped her hands in, washing away all the blood sweat and tears.

"I'm going to get some food. I'll be back in a bit." Natsu said cheerfully.

Her heart sank.

 _He's going to leave me. He's going to run away from me._

Tears burned in her eyes as she bowed her head.

* * *

Sadness and Tears.

Natsu was shocked at what he smelled from her.

No one had reacted like that before.

She doesn't want me to leave.

But he had to. He needed to get them food. And ask some questions.

Natsu unravelled the scarf from his neck and gently wraped it around Lucy.

"It's ok, I know you'll be fine. I'm going to get us some food. Hold on to that till I get back, k?" He told her as he dumped his backpack at the base of a nearby tree and walked away.

He smelled...warmth, fuzziness, and more tears from her.

 _Pfft. Girls._

He walked back to where they fought, the leader collapsed, dazed and bleeding. He looked like he had been through a meat grinder. Natsu grinned.

 _Lucy has a bit of a mean streak_

He would have let her pound him all day. The Black Hand could have taken a lot more punishment, and a lot more pain.

But Lucy was crying and afraid, even as she was standing over the beaten and bleeding Dark Guild leader.

She was the most powerful person there at the time, standing over a beaten enemy and she was still frantic, so terrified...

 _She looked helpless._

Natsu dragged all the unconscious dark guild members to a tree, and used a rope from one of their bags to tie them all to it.

He dusted off his hands before he walked over to the bruised and bleeding figure.

"Whaaaa, please don't hurt meee..." The man whimpered pathetically.

With a sinister grin he showed off his one scaly and dragonic hand, scratching his talons into the tree behind him, shaving off wood spirals.

"Now, let's talk." Natsu growled.

He wanted to know.

* * *

Lucy stroked the scarf around her neck, her knees still weak from relief

 _He isn't going to leave me._

Tears dripped onto the scarf as Lucy smiled.

She wiped them away and lay down on the packed dirt of the camp site.

It was dusk.

Lucy looked at all the colours in the sky as her breathing returned to normal.

She closed her eyes and drifted in her own thoughts.

 _Natsu..._

 _Reckless._

 _Loyal._

 _Caring._

 _It was an adventure just being with the Fairy Tail wizard._

 _I wonder what the rest of Fairy Tail will be like._

"Yo! I got us some food!" Natsu exclaimed as he strolled in to the camp site.

Lucy smiled as she sat up.

He had spat on the ashes and coals of a previous campfire, and it crackled with flames as the embers once again glowed with heat.

"mind if I have that back?" He pointed to the scarf.

Lucy ran her fingers over it one last time before she unwrapped it and handed it back.

"Thanks." He put his scarf on and sat down next to her.

She touched it, a question in her expression.

"It means a lot to me. Dad gave it to me. Igneel. He taught me to read and write and how to use Dragon Slayer Magic."

-Your father taught you that?- Lucy wrote with a flick of her light pen.

 _What parent in their right mind would teach their kid such dangerous and destructive magic?_

"Yeah! I mean who better to teach me Dragon Slayer magic than a Fire Dragon."

-Wa_- Lucy lost control of her penmanship in her surprise

-A real fire dragon?-

"Yeah!"

-Do all dragon slayers turn into dragons?-

He looked away at this.

"I dunno. What about you?"

It was Lucy's turn to look away.

"You're so mysterious." Natsu told her light-heartedly.

 _Should I tell him? How much could I tell him?_

She slowly raised her pen and wrote carefully

-My mother died-

He bowed his head.

"My father disappeared. He left me."

-At least your father could be alive.-

"It just hurts that he isn't here."

-I know-

* * *

Lucy woke up, feeling warm, rays of sunlight flickering through the trees.

She looked over her shoulder, and saw they were in the same position, laying on their sides, back to back, cushioned by soft leafs covered by natsu's bedmat.

Lucy wondered why she hadn't seen one of these wonderfully soft, waterproof and compact things before.

It could have saved her many uncomfortable nights of sleep.

Natsu seemed to emit an aura of heat that wrapped around her like a blanket.

She felt even more comfortable than she felt with her cloak.

Next to her Natsu let out a huge snore.

Lucy giggled as she looked at his peacefully sleeping face.

She reached down to her key pouch and touched Plue's key

he appeared in a flash of light and he was holding...

 _My backpack!_

Lucy picked up the little snowman and gave him a hug which he returned.

She ruffled through her backpack-diary, check, latest issue of sorcerer weekly, check, snacks, check.

She mourned her sleeping bag, blanket and her other cloths that she had lost during other kidnapping attempts. It left her backpack very empty and made Lucy ever more resourceful.

 _Wait, how did Pue even get my bag..._

Natsu suddenly sat up with a snort.

Lucy froze and they stared at each other.

"Huh, i was feeling a bit cold." He yawned."It's too early you weirdo."

He promptly flopped down onto the bedmat and started snoring.

 _That's it? he woke up just to say that?  
And how is he asleep already? He's an idiot!  
How is he cold? He breaths fire and everything around him is hot!_

Lucy gave up trying to figure out the pink haired boy. For now.

She decided to write in her diary, then read her copy of sorcerer weekly, then maybe polish her keys.

Surely he'd be awake by then.

* * *

He wasn't.

Lucy was getting a little frustrated by now. she wanted to get back to civilization.

Specifically a bath.

Lucy went to Natsu, about to wake him up, but she stopped mid poke.

His hand was still a hideous mix of human and reptilian with cracked skin, small patches of scales and unusually long and thick nails that covered the fingertip- talons.

It was only half healed.

 _Is this why he is sleeping so much?_

She felt a bit guilty she hadn't thought to heal it last night.

Lucy called up her magic, summoning five stars that floated around in the air around her.

 _Ok then,_ _ **FIVE STAR REMEDY**_ _!_

The stars rushed to Natsu and started revolving around him, emitting a golden glow.

* * *

Natsu awoke to a gentle golden glow, with the sweet smell of Lucy's golden magic in the air.

Every muscle in his body felt relaxed. His hand felt soft and wonderful.

He realised his hand was normal again as the light faded.

He was still a little sleepy though.

"Mmmhh, five more minutes." He yawned as he rolled over.

A second later he received a kick to his thigh

He opened his eyes to see her chocolate coloured eyes staring down at him, the rest of her face annoyed.

-UP- she scrawled in the air.

"ok, ok. Jeze. What are you so worked up about?"

-we are going to Fairy Tail. And it's almost midday.-

Natsu instantly perked up. "Oh yeah, I need to get back to happy! Let's go Loony!"

-IT'S LUCY! YOU IDIOT!-

He just chuckled as he quickly packed up.

* * *

"Urrp, this wasn't a good idea." Natsu was very green as the carriage bumped along the highway.

 _Thirty third._

"I think i'm gonna hurl"

 _fifth._

"I hate carriages."

 _fifty sixth._

"Lucyyyy, help me."

 _That's a new one._

-How?- she wrote.

"Urrp, Star thingies..."

Lucy tilted her head, a thoughtful look on her face. As if considering it.

"Pleeeeease" He moaned pathetically.

She chuckled and summoned five stars and let the healing light wash over the Pink haired boy.

"You doing it?" Natsu asked, his head hanging halfway out the carriage.

-Yes-

"It's not doing anything...Lucyyyy...urg...try harder..."

The light shone brighter

"You sure you're doing it right?" Natsu burped.

Lucy let the starlight fade and a smile tugged at her lips, half amusement, half annoyance.

 _How can someone this powerful be so helpless? From carriages no less?_

"Uhhh, I hate carriages"

fifty seventh.

"why did I decide to do this?"

twenty ninth.

"Luuucyyyyyyy."

She sighed and looked out the window, watching the scenery pass by while ignoring the Cookie Tosser next to her.

* * *

"We have arrived at Magnolia."

The door on Natsu's side of the carriage opened, and he promptly flopped onto the dirt road.

Then he started Laughing manically as he got to his feet, breathing fire as he screamed "I'm Alive! hahahahaaa!" started racing down the hill.

Lucy quickly paid the driver and ran after him.

She ducked through trees and bushes as she gave chase.

As they came up to a rundown looking house, Natsu called "Happy! I'M BACK!"

Something blue streaked out of the door and into Natsu's waiting arms

"NATSU!" the flying blue cat yelled, joy showing on every inch of his face, tears streaming down his face.

"I missed you buddy." Natsu was crying as well.

"I didn't think you'd be back for weeks" Happy replied as he laughed.

Lucy stood back and watched. The weirdness of a flying blue cat aside, it was a touching reunion.

"Can we go fishing soon?" Happy asked.

"I haven't been on a job in a while, we'll go when we get back. For now, let's go to the guild hall!"

"Aye Sir!"

"Oh yeah Happy, that's Lucy"

"wow, she looks scary."

"Yeah, but she's ok. She even helped me along the way."

 _Did he just agree that I'm scary?_

"Come on Lucy!" Natsu grinned as he started walking towards town with happy walking along side him. "You can finally Join Fairy Tail!"

Lucy grinned as she fell in step with the pink haired boy and the blue cat, on their way to Fairy Tail.


	4. Welcome To Fairy Tail

"We're BACK!" Natsu yelled as he kicked open the guildhall's doors.

They were greeted by a droning chorus of greetings, cheers and raised mugs, and in the case of one girl, she raised a whole barrel of beer that she proceeded to down.

"So you're back Ash brains!"

"I just said that ya stupid snowflake!"

"Bring it Nats...hurmp!"

Natsu sucker punched the half naked boy in the face who hit him back.

They started a spectacular smack down right in the middle of the guild hall, all the while hurling insults.

"Cheep shot fire breath!"

"Don't get your undies in a wad you walking popsicle!"

The brunette drinking beer from the barrel called over the din. "Grey! your cloths!"

 _Ah, so that's Grey Fullbuster, the Underwear Prince. He's known as being almost destructive as Natsu is._

"They're REAL MEN!" A huge white haired hulk of a man yelled as he jumped in to the fray.

The fighting was starting to consume the bystanders.

"Are you going to fight Loke?"

 _Loke? One of the most eligible wizard bachelors?_

Lucy turned...to find the handsome orange haired man with TWO women on his arms, cuddling up to them as he crooned to them.

"Nah, it's not my style."

A bottle flew out of the melee and conked Loke on the side of the face.

The handsome face twitched in irritation.

"You know what? I will fight. I need to protect you two lovely ladies."

"Good luck!" his 'ladies' cheered

 _If I hadn't burned my 'boyfriend book' he would have soooo been off the list._

"Oh, hello there! Are you new?"

Mirajane! The white haired beauty stood there, right in front of her.

Lucy nodded.

"Well, welcome to Fairy Tail!"

Lucy pointed at the brawl, her eyebrows raised as she wrote.

-Is that normal?-

"Oh yes, this happens quite frequently. It's quite fun." She said with her sweet smile.

As the battle threatened to engulf them, Lucy summoned two stars

the stars flew to Lucy and Mirajance's chest and emitted a warm glow.

Now they stood in the middle of the fray, completely unscathed as bottles smashed against them. people crashed into them and a bottle flew into Mirajane's face and she just blinked.

"Your magic is very pretty." Mirajane cooed as she gently touched her star, admiring it.

Lucy couldn't keep the grin off her face.

She was here.

At Fairy Tail,

A brawl was happening all around her and her Idol Mirajane, and they were calmly having a conversation in the middle of it, as if they were strolling through a park!

It was a mixture of insanity and dream come true.

 _And Mirajane complemented me, eeeep!_

Then Natsu threw Loke into Mirajane.

Mira's star flickered and faded away as she and Loke fell in a pile.

Loke Immediately jumped off her and Lucy knelt down to check her over.

 _What happened to my star?_

"Damn it! Mira? You ok?" Loke asked.

"I'm fine. It's all in good fun." Mira said cheerfully as blood trickled down her face, still smiling her sweet and sincere smile.

 _This place is unbelievable._

"Well," A smooth voice whispered in her ear "More Ladies for me to protect." How had Loke gotten behind her?

The fighting had started to die down around them, leaving Natsu and The Muscled white haired man fighting, while Grey was...trying to find another pair of underwear.

"I'm getting fired up now! Natsu growled and he smashed his flaming fists together.

"Yeah Magic! Now it's a REAL MAN'S FIGHT!" the other man yelled.

"Oh dear." Mirajane sighed as she got up. "Elfman is getting carried away."

 _So is Natsu._

Lucy brushed off Loke's arm and made her way to the two Combatants.

The shining star on her chest reduced Natsu's flames to a fierce heatwave that washed over her.

She Put a hand on his shoulder.

* * *

Natsu was getting into this fight, he had taken Grey out and now he was going to go all out with Elfman.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Lucy.

She had a look on her face. He didn't need her to speak, he could understand her perfectly fine.

Stop pushing yourself, you know what will happen.

-Natsu time to stop- She wrote.

He sighed.

"All right." He turned back to Elfman. "Next time Elfman."

"Awww, that's not Manley!" Elfman protested as Natsu followed Lucy back to Mirajane.

"You restrained Natsu" Mira told Lucy with awe.

He saw her frown -Is that bad?-

"No, it's just...never happened before. Unless you count Erza, but that's only when he fights with Grey. And then she just threatens to hit them. What did you do?"

Natsu snorted. "Like she could actually stop me."

"C'mon man! Why'd you give up?" Elfman questioned. "It's not Manley! and you're a total MAN!"

"I'll give you Manley..." Natsu started, but Lucy's fists glowed with her punchie stars.

Natsu watched as Lucy opened her palm and touched Elfman with the Star.

As soon as the star touched him, the white haired man went flying across the guild hall and slammed into the wall.

 _Holy crap that was AWESOME!_ He thought as he grinned.

Elfman pulled himself out of the wall and screamed out "THAT WAS FREKIN MANLEY!" before collapsing.

Mirajane just sighed before giggling. "Sorry about my brother. He's a bit of a doofus sometimes"

-That was your brother? I'm sorry, I overdid it.-

"Oh, don't worry about it." Mira chirped. "He would have gotten worse from Natsu."

Elfman started bawling, his face still flat against the floor. "My sister doesn't have any faith in me winning! it's so Unmanley! Aaaaaahhhhhhuuuhuuhaaaaaaa!"

"So Mira, Lucy wants to join Fairy Tail." Natsu told her, completely ignoring Elfman. "I kind of owe her, she helped me on my last mission."

"Ah, wonderful! A new member." Gramps had come up behind them, and Lucy was turning to face him.

"Hello there Master." Mira smiled "Should I get the stamp?"

"Yes, thank you Mira. So, you are Lucy. I am Guild master Makarov. Thank you for keeping one of my children safe."

While Mira was getting the guild stamp, Natsu grabbed Makarov and ran outside with him under his arm, screaming "Hey gramps I need to talk to you for a second, let's go! HAHAHAHA!"

"Put me down you Numbskull!"

Once they got outside, Natsu put him down. and faced him.

"You have to work on your subtlety Natsu. You didn't have to carry me." Makarov grumbled. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Lucy."

* * *

 _I wonder what that was about._

"Here it is!" Mira was back. "Where would you like it?"

Lucy extended her right hand, and tapped the back of it with her other.

"Okie!" Mira stamped her had.

And there it was.

That easy.

She couldn't tell how long she stood there, staring at it, not quite believing it.

"You ok there?" Mira asked, concerned.

She had to believe it. She was here.

Lucy smiled as she cradled her hand, holding it tight to her chest as she nodded.

"Welcome to the guild." Mira giggled.

"So how is it?" Natsu asked, appearing beside her.

Lucy looked down at the pink guildmark on her right hand. Still there.

-A dream come true-

both Mira and Natsu smiled.

"Alright brats! Listen up!" Makarov yelled from the top level.

"We have a new member! Lucy!"

Makarov waited for the cheers to die down.

"Now Lucy, you may not know like the rest of us do, but Fairy Tail is not just some guild for friends, or for work. We are a family! And as you helped one of my Children arrive back home safe and sound, you have our gratitude! As a family we protect our own, and there is little owed between family as you always owe too much to each other to keep track. So welcome to the family Lucy, Welcome! To FAIRY TAIL!"

The cheers erupted again, and Lucy looked around her in shock.

 _Maybe this could be my home..._

Lucy could feel a tear in her eye.

"Alright, let's Party!" Natsu yelled out as he put an arm around her shoulders.

"Break out the booze!" The brunette yelled.

"You're already drunk Cana!" Grey called over the merriments.

"And you lost your cloths again!" She called back with a hiccup.

"Ah crap!"

"Manly Party!"

Natsu was grinning beside her, with Mira on her other side offering her a tankard which she took.

"Party Hard my Children!"

"Hear hear!" "MANLEY STYLE!" "Partaaayyyyy!"

* * *

Lucy woke up with a headache.

She had never drunk that much in her life before. She hardly remembered anything from the night before.

She blinked as she saw silver eyes above her.

Mirajane was standing over her, offering a mug with a wink. "Hangover cure" She whispered.

Lucy sat up, which made the world spin.

Mira steadied her and helped her drink.

It tasted of ginger, grass and swamp weeds, and it left a film on the top of her mouth.

The pounding in her head went away instantly, and her headache was reduced to a small buzz.

-Thank you Mira- She wrote shakily.

"No problem." She whispered and nimbly picked her way between sleeping figures back to the bar.

Lucy looked around her and blushed.

She and the brunette, Cana had been snuggling together and were using Natsu's stomach as a pillow.

She groaned as she got up and looked around the guildhall.

Grey was in his underwear, flopped face down on the table, Loke was asleep in a small pile of girls, Elfman was snoring while sprawled out on the bar.

However there was one figure at one of the tables, a tiny blue haired girl reading from a dusty and very old tome from the light of a lacrama lantern.

Lucy wove her way through the human obstacle course that the guild hall had become.

The girl looked up from her book as she herd Lucy approaching.

"Oh, hello. Lucy right? I'm Levy."

-Nice to meet you. What are you reading?-

"Your handwriting is lovely Lucy. And I just finished 'The Legend of infinity' and this one is a book of old fables."

-I love books. I was writing a novel at one point.-

"Really?"

-yes, but- Lucy paused -I lost it-

"Oh. Well, I'm sure if you try again it will be better than your last one."

-I may just have to start again.-

Lucy noticed a stack of small magazine sized books beside her. Detective Lance booklets.

 _My favourite. I like her already._

-Have you read the latest issue of Detective Lance?-

"Ohmygosh, there is a new issue?"

Lucy smiled as she got out Horologium's key and swiped it through the air.

The clock spirit appeared in a flash.

"Good morning miss Lucy. I have brought your collection for you."

Horologium's container section opened up, the books stacked up high inside the clock spirit.

Lucy picked up the topmost booklet and handed it to Levy.

She touched the clock face gently after she shut the cabinet.

"You are welcome miss Lucy." He said, and vanished.

Lucy turned back to The blue haired girl to find her engrossed in the book.

After a second she squealed in excitement. "I knew he survived the waterfall drop!"

She smiled at Levy's excitement.

 _It's nice to find another book lover like me._

Lucy blinked. The purple haired kid sitting next to her had woken up and was watching them.

-Hello there-

"Hi."

-You seem a little young for all this insanity.-

"Yeah, I'm waiting for my dad. He's out on a job at Mt Hakobe and he was supposed to be back today."

"I know you're worried about him, but have faith. Maco be fine." Levy told him, not taking her eyes away from the book in front of her.

"I guess you're right. well, I'm Romeo."

-Lucy-

"so you're another bookworm?"

-Proudly-

Levy giggled at this.

"Tell em' Lu. Book life."

-Damn right- She penned elegantly before deftly sending her light pen spinning through her fingers.

Levy offered Lucy a high five and she took it before they both started giggling conspiratorially.

Romeo sighed and started reading a book on fire basic magic.

"do you mind if I borrow this for a little while?" Levy asked

-Sure. Do you mind helping me find a place to stay at?-

"You don't have a place?"

-I've been travelling. A lot.-

"We have apartments at Fairy Hills, but those are a hundred thousand Jewl a month."

Lucy slumped. She didn't have near that amount of money.

"I do know that there are some cheaper apartments around. Want me to show them to you?"

-Only if you don't mind-

"It's not a problem. I don't mind helping out a fellow bookworm" She said with a wink.

"I was only here to look after Romeo while Mira was busy. Now it's quiet I can go home afterwards."

-Thanks Levy-

"Hey, no problems Lu."

* * *

It was perfect.

The apartment was absolute Luxury for the girl who was constantly on the road.

And Seventy Thousand Jewl was very affordable for being in the center of Magnolia.

It was close to the guild hall, and the canal ran right outside it.

 _If only I had enough Money for it._

Lucy lamented as she was flopped on top of the bar in the Guild hall.

"Hey Luce. Why so down?" Natsu yawned next to her.

-I have no Money-

"Let's go on a Job then, come on then." Natsu said as he dragged her over to the other side of the guild hall and stood her in front of the jobs board.

"Take your pick. Though I'd prefer if you picked a job where I could punch something."

Lucy looked over the jobs board. Finding Thieves, Monster hunts, Decoding scripts, Treasure hunts, Finding a rare fish, breaking a curse.

The variety and amount of quests went on and on.

Lucy reached out to one of the posters.

She saw the guild mark on the back of her hand.

 _My first quest as a Fairy Tail Wizard._

 _It will be a new Adventure, with a new family._


	5. Aster Road

"Ok, Question." Cana grumbled as they trekked over one of Magnolia's more broken roads north.

 _Well, more of a rocky sandtrap than a road._

"Why are we walking and not taking a carriage?"

Lucy pointed to Natsu and made a sick face.

"He could handle it."

-Yeah, but I can't.-

"Isn't it a pain to have to write while walking?" Cana asked as she looked behind them to see what she wrote.

-Very- She wrote while nodding.

Natsu grunted as he looked up from the flyers he was reading.

"Hey Luce? Why'd you take so many Jobs?"

"You're definitely starting with a tour de force here girl." Cana commented as he read the papers over Natsu's shoulder.

" 'Temporary Restaurant Staffing' and 'Destroy Cursed Chest' at Aster Town, then 'Bandit Hunt' in Aster Forrest, then Missing Villagers in Hellebores town."

Cana Pointed to the requests in order.

-Plenty of stuff for Natsu to punch.- Lucy smirked.

"That's great, but why did you choose to bring me?"

-Master asked me to bring someone extra for my first mission.-

"So why not Levy then? You seemed to hit it off with her."

-You'll see.-

Cana sighed as they walked on in silence.

* * *

-Vintage-

"Not bad." She Hiccuped.

-Cana Albarona, the Vintage Fairy-

"Uh, never mind, that makes me sound like an old hag."

-Strong brew?-

"Too...Elfman."

-Fortified?-

"not bad." Cana chuckled as she took another swig from the bottle she had produced out of nowhere.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked.

"We are trying to come up with an Alias for me. Everyone calls you the Salamander right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well I don't have one!" Cana waved her arms around as they walked.

"We always call you the Walking Brewery anyways." Happy chirped snidely.

"Zip it furball. I could scorch you so hard you'd want to change your name." Cana growled.

"What about Lucy?" Natsu asked.

-I'm not well known yet.-

"Doesn't mean you shouldn't have one."

-Mira said that Cana has been at fairy tail the longest out of you guys. So she needs an Alias.-

Lucy thought for a moment -How about 'The booze Fairy?'-

With that Cana started Laughing.

"That's a good one! Haaahahah! Booze Fairy."

Natsu and Happy just looked at each other and shrugged. "It suits her." They chorused.

"Look out world!" Cana proclaimed. "Here comes Cana Alberona the Booze fair-pffft, haaaaaaaa!" She just burst out laughing again.

"Maybe we should stop for the night." Natsu suggested.

Lucy nodded in agreement.

"RAWR! I AM THE BOOZE FAIRY!"

Lucy and Natsu began unpacking while Cana was on the ground, rolling around while laughing her ass off.

 _She's Drunk Already. I'm starting to regret bringing her_. Lucy thought, embarrassed by her new friend's antics.

* * *

While Cana was sprawled out on her bedmat snoring peacefully, Natsu and Lucy were Lying on their own bedmats staring at the stars.

-I love looking at the stars-

"I saw you looking at them the first time I saw you."

-You mean inside the fire?-

"Yeah. You look so happy when you look at the stars."

-I like it. And I love them.- She touched her key pouch.

"You mean, those guys up there? The constellations? Those are your spirits?"

Lucy nodded. -Taurus, Cancer, and Aquarius.-

"Those stars there." Natsu pointed to a cluster. "And there too, those stars are a bit funny."

-Those are Leo and Aquarius.-

"Does that mean anything?"

Lucy looked closely at the stars.

Leo's looked faded, weak and flickering. The darkness around them more prominent than the other constellations in the sky.

But Aquarius, one of her stars was faded. It was brighter than It used to be, but it was still dull compared to the others.

-Yes. The stars reflect the spirit. Leo must be suffering.-

 _But Aquarius..._

-We should get some sleep.-

"Allright. Night Lucy."

-Goodnight Natsu-

* * *

She was in a stone walled prison cell, dark flickering light burning from the lamp. Everything smelled musty and damp.

moss grew everywhere, but even that bit of green couldn't cheer up the place.

There were symbols on the wall to drain her magic power, leaving her feeling weak and pathetic.

"Well would ya look at that. Naked Mummy captured the Blond Heiress."

"Yeah bro, It's incredible that Naked mummy captured the blond Heiress,

"Yeah, but the girl did beat up a lot of our guys, maybe we teach her a lesson."

"Yeah bro, I was thinking we teach her a lesson for beating up our guys."

Lucy just tried to summon a star.

 _Just one, Please!_

A fist crunched into her face, leaving her seeing stars

Another smashed into her guts, crunching her muscles and knocking the wind out of her.

Coughing and dazed, she tried to raise her hands to defend herself.

One of her hands was grabbed and slammed against a knee.

Lucy screamed as she felt and heard her bone snap.

A foot caught her chest and kicked her to the floor, a hand pinned her arm and her pinky had a boot smash down on it.

Lucy screamed again as her captor droned "This little piggy went to market."

His foot came down again on her ring finger.

"This little piggy went to town." his drawl was drowned out by screaming.

"Wait brother I think you got that one wrong."

"Yeah brother I think that I got that one wrong."

 _Concentrate, I need my star! COME ON LUCY DO IT!_

A fist smashing into her nose broke her concentration.

Lucy's head spun as she sat up, blood flowing down her nose.

 _No, this isn't right, I am supposed to have my shield by now!_

"Hey brother, she's a pretty one."

"Yeah she's real pretty brother."

"Maybe we should teach her another lesson."

"Yeah she needs another lesson brother."

They started fumbling with their pants.

 _NO! COME ON STAR PLEASE!_ _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD!**_

Nothing happened and Lucy started panicking.

 _No, please, this isn't supposed to happen. This isn't real, It's a Nightmare, I had my star back then, and Salt was on his way here! Please! NO!_

Nothing changed, she felt her pants being pulled down.

"Lucy!" She heard in the distance.

A fierce heatwave erupted around her, forcing her Nightmares back.

 _Natsu?_

Flames erupted all around her, burning the two figures away and melting the stone walls of her cell like they were made of wax.

Everything faded to white...

* * *

Natsu knew something was wrong, he could smell it immediately.

Sweat, darkness and Fear, coming from Lucy.

The dark fear clouded her smell of starlight.

Natsu leapt up and rushed over to her.

She was shivering, tossing and turning, curled up into a ball, clutching her arms to her chest.

"Lucy!" He called to her.

She just whimpered.

Natsu put his hands on her shoulders and tried to shake her awake.

She felt so cold under his hands.

Lucy's eyes flew open and she jumped to her feet and scrambled backwards until her back met a treetrunk.

Her knife was out and clutched in both hands, her eyes wide, breathing heavy and ragged, shivering all the while.

"Lucy, it's alright." Natsu whispered calmly as he walked over to her.

He reached out slowly to her hands.

Her knife swiped at him.

There was a small sting on his arm. He barely noticed.

"Lucy, look at me." Natsu whispered.

Their eyes met.

Her chocolate eyes started to soften, but they were still wary and tired.

He placed his hand on hers, and gently guided the knife back to it's sheath.

"I'll protect you. I've got you." Natsu wrapped her in a warm hug.

She weakened against him, and he gently guided her to the ground.

She curled up against him, one of her hands around his arm, holding it like a child would hold a stuffed animal.

He just stroked her hair until he heard her breathing slow into a steady sleeping rhythm.

-Thank you- she scrawled, unusually messy, before her hand dropped to the ground, and the pen rolled out of her hand.

Fast Asleep.

 _What kind of nightmares would do that to a person?_

 _And why did did she wake up so violently?_

Natsu sat there in thought as he looked down at the girl in his arms. So strong, but so fragile.

 _She didn't have nightmares when we slept together._

He lifted her up and gently placed her on his bedmat and lay her down on her side then went behind her and lay back to back with her.

It was nice being so close to her, hearing her gentle breaths and feeling them through their contact. Engulfed in the scent of starlight, and the warmth of her magic.

Natsu was worried, but he smiled all the same.

 _I will protect her._ Natsu resolved as he drifted off to sleep himself.

* * *

Lucy woke up to that comforting warmth again, and not just from the morning's sunlight.

Her back was pressed to another, and she could feel his breathing.

She twisted around and looked back over her shoulder.

As she looked back...there was Natsu's face.

Very close. She stared at him for for a second before he grinned.

"Morning."

Lucy jerked back and fell onto her front.

As she got up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes she looked around.

The lumpy bedmat that Mira had loaned her was sitting empty and she was laying on Natsu's with him.

Cana was sprawled out on hers, and happy was laying on her chest and using her cleavage as a pillow.

Her eyes shifted back to Natsu's grinning face.

"You ok?" He asked cheerfully.

-Yes, thank you.-

"You had a nightmare last night. It was really bad from the look of it."

Lucy hung her head. She could still remember it.

-It was from when a guild named Naked Mummy captured me.-

"And then when I woke you up you were acting weird."

-That's normal If someone interrupts my sleeping.-

"Seriously?"

-It's happened too many times.-

Natsu was silent as he thought about it, his arms crossed.

Then Lucy saw a fresh cut on Natsu's arm.

Lucy touched the cut gently.

"Oh, this? It's fine."

-I did that.-

"Hey, it's ok, I've gotten worse from Grey when we fight, even Erza has done worse for punishment. Don't worry about it."

Lucy couldn't help a few tears escaping her eyes.

"Hey, why you crying now? ya weirdo."

She just hugged him.

As they separated he got an evil grin on his face.

"It's time to go, and that means waking Cana up." Natsu laughed evilly.

Lucy just looked at him in confusion.

"Trust me Luce, it'll be good."

* * *

"You two are assholes." Cana grumbled for the fifth time as they entered Aster town.

-I dunno, you make great drunken poetry when you wake up.-

"I can't believe she got snot everywhere." Natsu grumbled.

-Your idea, your fault.-

"And all of it got on me." Happy sobbed, not living up to his name.

"Serves you right, my boobs are not a pillow you fleabag."

Lucy giggled, enjoying her friend's bantering.

"Excuse me, but would you happen to be the Wizards from Fairy Tail?"

A young man had come out of one of the houses as they had strolled through town.

"Yeah!" Natsu affirmed simply

"That we are." Cana Stated proudly.

"Wonderful. I am Lucas Emberson. I am the Mayor of Aster Town."

"A little pipsqueak like you is mayor? no way!" Natsu exclaimed.

Lucy smacked him over the head.

-Sorry. My friend lacks manners.- Lucy scribed.

A small smile tugged at the mayor's face.

"Don't worry, Fairy Tail's reputation for being unruly has preceded it." He linked his hands behind his back. "Now, there are three requests I have sent on behalf of the townspeople, we need you to destroy a Cursed Chest, Hunt down and capture some Local bandits lead by a man calling himself 'Hot dog', and help staff the Snowy Bottle Cellar Bar and Restaurant."

"The Snowy Bottle? It's here?" Cana whispered in awe. "It has one of the biggest collections of alcohol in Fiore."

"Correct. Your job will be to be extra hands while the more experienced ones train the new staff. It's just so they have more time to teach and Learn."

Lucy nodded. -We'll take the cursed chest first, then tonight we'll be at the Restaurant, and we'll deal with the bandits on our way north to another job in Hellebores town. We can collect the reward on our way back.-

"Splendid. Now, I must get back to my paperwork. The cursed chest is in the basement of the Percius household, the one with the green roof. I will see you later." Mayor Lucas strode confidently away.

As soon as he was away, Cana squealed and whirled around to Lucy.

"You knew about this right?" She asked breathlessly.

Lucy nodded, amused before Cana caught her in a hug.

"It's a Boozer's dream come true!" She giggled. "Thanks Lucy."

She smiled and winked at Cana. -So long as you can sell as much as you drink.-

Cana's smile turned sly. "I'm pretty confident I can get a few handsome guys to buy me a drink."

She leaned over a bit to show off her cleavage.

"Or ten." She added.

Natsu snorted. "I wouldn't."

"Wouldn't expect you to. You're no gentleman." Cana huffed haughtily.

"Whatever, let's go burn that chest already."

"Aye sir!"

The girls both sighed.

"Yeah."

-May as well-

"I mean how hard could it be?" Natsu asked grinning as they headed to the green roofed house.

-Don't say that! You should never say that!-

Natsu harrumphed. "What's the worse that could happen?"

-That's even worse!-

* * *

"You just had to say it." Cana spat. "Not just one thing, but two!"

"How was I know something would happen?" Natsu asked as he jumped out of the way of a set of long sharp claws.

"It always happens if you say things like that!" Cana yelled back at him.

"Well why are you to just standing back and watching?"

-We like it where it's less stabby.- Lucy wrote.

"You said it."

Cana and Lucy watched as the half chest, half monster attacked Natsu, sending swipes and bites, Natsu ducking and weaving through the large deserted basement.

 _Well, more like it's a monster popping out of a chest, but kind of connected to it. All squishy and gross._

"Lucy! Pleeease?!"

She sighed. -Fine.-

She breathed in deep, focused on her magic to bring out three stars.

 _ok,_ _ **THREE STAR ARROWS!**_

The Stars appeared in a flash of light, split into little pebbles of light and sped towards the chest monster….

...Just as the monster ducked back into the chest, and the star arrows bounced off the Ancient and apparently magic resistant wood.

 _Awww crap._

The Monster burst out of it's chest and shot out some of the spines that were protruding from it's arm.

The spikes flew towards Lucy and Cana, whistling as they rushed towards them.

Lucy managed to only get one star in time, and it settled on Cana's chest and glowed.

She spun around to get behind Cana, but went too slow.

A spike Lodged in her arm and another streaked past her shoulder, grazing it.

Lucy hissed in pain as it stuck in her, and then as she promptly pulled it out.

She finally had her own star glowing on her chest, and the spikes clattered harmlessly off her body as she stepped out from behind Cana.

"Lucy!" Natsu yelled out.

-I'm fine.-

"Sorry I wasn't ready for that." Cana apologized.

-It's Ok. Now, can we light this thing up?-

She smirked "Yeah, Let's bring the heat!"

"Now you're speaking my Language!" Natsu grinned, smashing his flaming fists together.

"FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" He yelled as he smashed into the monster.

Lucy drew Taurose's Key and swiped it.

The golden bull appeared in a flash of light with a long drawn out Moooooo.

"Woooohoooooo, it's a double dose of hotness today Miss Luuuucy."

-Could you please help Natsu destroy that chest?-

"Nooooo problem!" The bull called as he Lunged in, his axe held high.

Natsu had left a black patch on the chest with his punch.

Taurose hit this spot too, forming a crack in the unnaturally strong wood.

Cana drew out three of her cards."Tower! Sun! Judgement! **Holy Fire**!"

A stream of flames tinged with with gold streaked towards the chest.

Lucy saw the crack widen as the flames started to dissipate.

Before the flames disappeared completely, Natsu started Inhaling- the flames rushing into his mouth as he ate them.

 _So he can Eat fire as well as breath it?_

" **FIRE DRAGON ROAR!** "

Flames boomed from his mouth and Crashed into the chest monster, a constant jet of intense fire.

The chest broke with the crack of old wood as Natsu eased up on his flames.

"Woohoo! one down!" Cana cheered.

"Alright!" Natsu chuckled.

Lucy sighed in relief. -Well, that could have gone a lot worse.-

"Well, it could have gone a little better." Cana Laughed as she pointed out broken and charred shelving and furniture.

"Are you kidding? We got off easy." Happy Chirped from behind the girls.

-where were you during the fight?-

"I decided to go and find a place to buy some fish. Freaky chest monsters are bad for my health."

Lucy sighed. -Well, it's a few hours before we need to be at the Restaurant. What now?-

"How about a bath and a drink?" Cana suggested.

"Take a nap!" Natsu yawned.

Lucy sighed. -Fine, let's find an Inn-


	6. Snowy Bottle & Hotsprings

"Uhhhh!" Cana groaned as she stretched out in the waters of the inn bathhouse as she stepped in. "That's the stuff."

Lucy sighed in agreement as she melted into the comfortably warm waters. She had gotten in before Cana.

The Brunette had decided to recline against a rock.

"I don't remember the last time I relaxed like this." A glass of wine had somehow appeared in Cana's hand. "Hot Springs, a good vintage and a hot blonde." Cana winked at Lucy who blushed.

Cana laughed at that. "I'm kidding. I'm sure Natsu wouldn't be happy with me."

Lucy tilted her head and shrugged, silently asking why.

"What? you haven't noticed?" Cana grinned as she took a sip of her wine.

Lucy poked her arm.

"ooooh no, this is going to be really good later down the track. I ain't telling."

She huffed in response and sank back into the waters.

Cana sighed. "C'mon girl. Don't be so down. we got all this to ourselves." She swept her hand over the practically empty girl's section of the bath house.

Lucy shrugged. It was nice.

"Oh yeah, how's your arm?"

She sat up and showed the wound. It had shrunk from the Five Star Remedy she had used before entering the bathhouse. It wasn't bleeding anymore and it didn't hurt, but it was still there.

Cana held her arm and surveyed the wound. "Not bad."

Her probing finger found another, older scar. And another. And one that ran up to her shoulder.

Then they moved down to the biggest one on her stomach.

Lucy saw Cana's face fall as she traced along her scars.

"Stand Up." She demanded Shakily. "I want to see them. All of them."

She hesitated, but obeyed.

Shaking the water off her hand she reached out of the pool and picked up her light pen.

-Most of them happened a while ago.-

"How?" She asked, her voice cracking, her fingers trailing over all the scars Cana could touch.

-Fighting off Kidnaping attempts, mild torture when they managed to get me, and a few accidents from when I worked in a Kitchen.-

"Mild torture? Mild?" Cana questioned, upset.

"You were tortured?" A voice asked from behind them.

Natsu, standing there nothing but his scarf and boxer shorts.

She covered herself as he looked her over. She could almost feel his gaze.

People had stared at her before, a few times Nude. But She didn't feel strange and violated by his stare.

The only place his gaze was lingering was her scars, then back to her face.

-It tickled.-

"Fuck off Natsu, this is the girls bath!" She snapped before turning back to Lucy."You going to keep the tough girl act going?" Cana demanded angrily.

-Yes. it's how I remained alive and free this long.-

Cana seemed to falter.

"Lucy." She saw Natsu's eyes, found kindness and concern in them.

She turned to look at Cana's, and they held the same emotions behind her anger.

It was Lucy's turn to falter, and she looked down.

 _They care. They just want to know._ Her shoulders Slumped.

-I have been tortured three times. Five if you count the times I managed to get my shield out before I got hurt too badly.-

Lucy took a shuddering breath in as she wrote.

-All three of them were painful beyond Imagining. And each time I lost something.-

"Like your nightmare last night? About Naked Mummy?"

-That was one time I managed to get my Star shield. In my nightmare, I didn't have it.-

Lucy felt a tear run down her face. -I never thought I'd be sharing it with anyone except my spirits. I never had anyone else I could tell.-

 _Except Salt, and look what happened to him._

"We're family here Lucy. We don't always share our pain, but we always trust and have faith in one another." Cana uttered, looking away.

Natsu looked down. "Yeah. Erza. Grey. Mira. Everyone at the guild. We all have something that weighs on us. We just have to trust one another to help us get through it."

-Even Mirajane?-

"You see it when she looks down. It's easy to see, but It doesn't happen often. She's always comforting us, caring, being motherly to us." Natsu revealed quietly.

No one said anything.

Natsu sniffed in. "Someone's coming. Can we find another place to talk?"

-Sure.-

"Yeah we should." Cana turned. "Also, Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"YOU'RE IN THE GIRL'S BATHHOUSE!" Cana yelled as she whipped out a card from who knows where.

A gust of wind boomed out of the Card and sent Natsu flying away.

"Waaaaaa! Happy! Help me I think I'm gonna be sickkkkk"

"I got you!" The cat called as he caught Natsu. "But If you throw up on me, I'm going to drop you."

"Uhh, those two." Cana moaned.

Lucy had to smile. Even during times like this, they kept their spirit. 

* * *

Lucy was relieved when they didn't start to talk again when they all made it back to their room.

Cana instead had a small deck of cards that she had thrown onto the table, and was studying it closely.

She had gathered up the cards and threw it again twice already.

Natsu was toying with a candle flame, stroking the flame, lighting a toothpick on fire and eating that.

Happy was munching on a fish.

Lucy went up to Cana. -Is it a good fortune?-

Cana didn't notice so she tapped her foot on the floor.

She looked up from her cards and read what Lucy wrote.

"Heh? No. It's not a good fortune at all. The Devil, The Tower and The Death cards are right in the middle."

Lucy looked the cards over. The three cards she had pointed out were nearly on top of each other.

-I can't read fortunes very well, but I know that's bad-

"What's so bad about the cards?" Natsu asked, sounding bored.

"She's reading a fortune Natsu, it's not the cards that are bad." Happy sighed.

"Soooo, why are the cards so important?"

Cana sighed irritated. "The tower means change, chaos, danger or crisis. That alone is bad, but having Death there too, as well as the Devil…..It's not good."

-And the cards are close to the Center of the pile. All three are going to be huge In this person's life.-

Cana looked down.

"So who is it?" Natsu asked.

"Gildarts." Cana uttered.

"Pfffft, hah! you kiddin'? nothing can kill old Gildarts. He'll be fine." Natsu scoffed.

-Who's Gildarts?-

"Only the strongest Wizard in all of Fairy Tail." Happy chimed in.

"Wait, how come you were looking him up Cana?" Natsu asked.

"Curiosity." Cana put on a smile. "You think I don't read all your fortunes for fun?"

"So how do you get anything from your cards?" Natsu asked.

-I am a bit curious about your card magic too.-

Cana sighed as she gathered up the cards in front of her. "Ok, I have a lot of cards. Cards inside cards even. My important ones are these." She held up the cards she had been reading. "The Twenty Two Major Arcana. I use them for telling the future and casting my spells."

She got out deck after deck of cards from her bag, some smaller than others.

"This is my Minor Arcana deck. Forty cards, ten in each suit. These are for when I want to use more complex spells. This is my communications deck for when I want to talk with someone who has a matching card, here's my tracking deck, my blank deck, my experiment deck, my…."

"Sheesh, sounds boring."

"You asked! you idiot!"

-Want to play a round of Fate's Gamble?- Lucy scrawled quickly before things escalated any more.

"You know how to play?"

-Yes-

"I'm warning ya girl. I kick ass at this game."

Lucy just politely smiled at Cana.

 _Just you wait._

* * *

"Let's get this over with. I want my rematch." Cana smirked with a growl. "And this time, I won't loose."

-Don't be so sore. You lost by one point.-

"A loss is still a loss, and every point matters."

They argued as they walked into the Snowy Bottle.

Lucy saw lantern lacramas embedded in what looked like ice that clung to the walls. The Bar had ice shelves that held bottle upon bottle of liquor, with an ice wine rack next to it that stretched across the whole wall of the Restaurant.

 _There's Ice everywhere, there's even snow, but it's not cold in the least._

A suave looking woman glided up to them and introduced herself.

"Good day. I am Elena Ganto. I am the Head waiter here this evening. You are the fairy tail Wizards I presume?"

Lucy nodded. -Yes we are.-

"Wonderful." She said, sounding almost uninterested. "I have your uniforms for you to wear. We will cut to the chase and I will show you how things work."

* * *

"So, what can I get you handsome?" Cana purred flirtatiously to one of her many customers from behind the bar.

Lucy saw the restaurant's normal bartender standing aside, looking dejected as they crowded around Cana's section of the bar.

 _Apparently she knows as much as she drinks. Well, when it comes to alcohol at least. And Natsu…._

Natsu was ferrying dirty dishes back to the kitchen. He had very quickly been reassigned after he ate a few of the dishes of food he was supposed to be carrying out.

As Lucy walked to the kitchen to get another plate of food, she heard a crash. She walked through the doors and surveyed the scene in front of her.

The second Chef's hand was bleeding badly, standing in front of the first aid kit and messily bandaging it up.

Lucy saw the Junior chef was taking his place and struggling. He looked like he would cut himself very soon.

The head Chef looked stressed out of his mind.

 _First thing's first._ She thought as she walked over to the bleeding Chef. _**FIVE STAR REMEDY!**_

The stars shone into existence and cast a glow onto the bleeding man.

-When the spell finishes, go find a healer.-

"Sure, yes. Thank you."

 _Ok, that should stop his bleeding and pain, now…._

She washed her hands and walked over to the Junior Chef.

Lucy plucked the knife from his hands and when he looked at her, she pointed to his old work area, that was next to the one she was in.

"But…" He started to protest, but she was already working, the Knife slicing through the Vegetables much faster than he had been.

She checked over all the containers in front of her, all the pans on the stove behind her, everything she could see.

-I'll help you, but I need you to help me, I don't know how these dishes are plated up.- She scrawled as she was checking the frypans.

The Junior chef gulped. "Yes mam."

Lucy sighed. She sort of missed this.

* * *

"Come on short stuff, put your back into it!" The grizzled man with the white beard told Lucy with a laugh as she struggled to cut the carrot straight.

"Don't push the little kid too hard Salt. You've only been teaching her for three days now." A tall slender woman with boyishly short brown hair berated him.

"You've been with us for a Month already Lucy, and we both know you won't get good at something unless you put effort in. So kindly Tell Kay to mind her own fuckin buisness." He swore cheerfully and ruffled her hair.

"ohhh, you want to dance there Salt Morris?"

"That depends what kind of dance little miss Bitter."

"The kind where I take my sword and stab you."

"Ahh, I'd like ta stab you too darlin'. Just not in the way you mean."

"You Pig!"

The kitchen doors bang open and in sweeps a buxom woman with curly shoulder length red hair and a shorter, muscular man with a full beard and a head of black hair.

"Kayla, Morris. Cut it out." The black haired man grunted.

"You two bickering like children again?" The red haired woman lilted in her deep breathy voice. "Honestly, Lucy here is more mature than the two of you combined."

"Awww, but Mary!" Salt moaned like a child and pointed to Kay. "She started it!"

Salt winked at Lucy and she giggled as Mary draped herself over her to see what she was doing.

"Looks like fun. You're not fast enough though. And those are uneven." She pointed to some of the carrot cubes Lucy was making.

"Bah, don't ya worry there Sweet Mary. It's Rustic cut!" Salt Morris chuckled.

Kay rolled her eyes. "When you burn something: it's caramelised, when you cut it wrong: it's rustic. When you set the kitchen on fire: it's a celebratory bonfire!"

"All entertaining excuses."The black haired man chuckled.

"Hector." Kay warned.

"Sorry."

"Hey everyone makes mistakes!" Morris. "I haven't made one in yonks though."

"What about yesterday?"

"I was showin' Lucy what happens if you don't cut an unpeeled garlic clove before you fry it."

"It Explodes! You got it everywhere!" Kay snapped

"It still smells of Garlic in here." Mary sighed.

"At least no Vampires will be getting in!" Morris replied cheerfully.

"There's no such thing!"

"How da you know?"

As they bickered, Lucy had a smile on her face as she continued to cut carrot after carrot. Cutting them straighter each time.

* * *

As the rush in the kitchen died down, everyone started to sigh in relief.

The head chef walked over to Lucy. "Miss, you saved my ass today. I want to say thanks."

-No problem- She wrote with a smile.

"Tell me, where did you learn to cook?"

-From a bunch of nice pirates.-

"Pirates?" The Chef spluttered.

-Kidding. The taste Kitchen in Thunder Cove.-

"Hm, haven't heard of them. Anyways, just packing down to go and we're done for the night, so…"

"BANDITS IN TOWN!" A very pale man yelled. "Where are the Fairy Tail Wizards?!"


	7. House on fire

"BANDITS IN TOWN! Where are the Fairy Tail Wizards!?"

Lucy bolted out of the kitchen and rushed for the door, grabbing her cloak from the coat rack near the door.

Natsu and Cana rushed out the door while She put it on, then followed her friends.

People were moving everywhere, some were running, some were fighting, houses were burning, jeering and screams were heard in the air.

"Natsu! Eat those housefires and take out anyone who gets in your way!" Cana directed. "Lucy, we'll start taking out the trash! Let's Go!"

"Right!" Natsu shot off the mark, tearing through bandits, rushing to the first house.

Lucy nodded and followed Cana through the town.

Time for a fight then.

She concentrated as she ran, generating star after star. She stopped when she had nine. She may have to conserve power for later.

As they saw the group of bandits ahead, they attacked.

"Scholar! Tower! Reverse Warrior! World! Trixter! **CHAIN LIGHTING!** " Cana's card glowed, and thunderbolts raced out of them, crashing into one bandit, then bouncing around all the others.

 _My turn!_ _ **FOUR STAR FIELD! TWO STAR IMPACT!**_

As two stars settled in her hand, another four formed a glowing square at her feet, the stars in each corner.

 _Ok, It won't last long once I'm outside the field, so then-_ _ **FOUR STAR FIELD: SPEED!**_

Lucy Lunged forwards, rushing at the bandits at breakneck speed.

She focused on the Bandits not touched by Cana's lightning, her impact fists smashing into them and sending them flying in all directions.

A gorilla of a man tried to wallop her, but she met the punch with her own punch, and his fist flew backwards, half spinning him. She punched him in the stomach while he was vulnerable and sent him flying too.

There was a booming crack. And something rushed by her cheek.

"That's gun magic! Lucy! Sniper!"

 _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD!**_

One of her spare stars flew up to her chest.

Another boom.

A bullet pinged off her shield.

And another.

She felt her shield flicker and die, the star on her chest fading and disappearing.

 _Not good._ _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD!**_

Another star shielded her in starlight as she dived behind a building, bullets pinging off her.

Just as she got behind the building the star died.

 _It can get through my shield. New approach then._

She drew her dagger and used the reflection to peer around the corner.

Four bandits with magic guns, two were sending bolts into the building she was behind, and the other two were taking shots at Cana.

She was ducking behind cover as she evaded a huge musclebound guy, struggling to stay in cover as she stayed out of reach of the brute.

 _I can't aim my arrows and i may hit Cana, my shield won't work, so…_

Lucy frowned in concentration. SIX STAR STREAM!

Six stars appeared all in a line and sped towards the bandits, curving around the corner.

They flowed around obstacles like a river of starlight and one by one they split off to strike Bandits.

The four snipers fell and the brute was struck and dazed.

The last star chased down a skinny and agile bandit, following him as he jumped around.

"What the hell is this magic?" He yelled as he danced frantically.

Cana started laughing watching the bandit jumping around as she sat on a block of ice that held the brute she was fighting a second ago.

Lucy smiled too.

"It's not funny! Waah!" He barely got out as he had another near miss with her star.

This caused Cana to laugh harder. "Can ya make him do the rambah next?" She managed to gasp through her cackling.

Lucy started to giggle, but then had a thought.

This guy may know more about the bandits we are going to take out tomorow, if this isn't them already.

She forced her star to stop right in front of him.

She snapped her fingers to get his attention before scribing -Who is your leader?-

"Huh? What? You not gonna talk?"

The star feinted at him at the same time as her eye twitched.

He put his arms up in front of his face. "Ah, I'm sorry, our leader is Hot Dog Hammel, and we are the Heat Brigade bandits."

-Nice to know. Now, where are your camps, and where is Hot Dog?-

"We got three camps in the forest…"

A Gout of flame shot up into the sky

A few moments later a Roar reverberated through town.

 _Natsu_

-Take care of him?- Lucy scrawled. -I want to check on Natsu.-

"Sure, come here handsome, we got things to talk about." Cana grinned as Lucy took off towards the flame.

Bandits were running towards her, weaponless and terrified.

"It's a Demon!"

"Monster!"

"He ate my fire Magic!"

She swerved around the scrambling Bandits, starting to run harder.

 _Is he in trouble? Has he pushed himself too far?_

As she rounded the corner…

 _Nope._

* * *

Natsu was having a ball.

He Laughed maniacally as he tore through Bandit after Bandit, slurping up housefires as he went.

"Come get some." He yelled at them grinning.

"Get him!"

"UUUUAAHHHHHH!" They yelled as they charged at him, spells or magical weapons glowing in their hands.

"Hahahaha! FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"

He sent bandits flying in all directions, but they kept coming.

"Flame Burst!" One of the bandits threw fire at Natsu which he gobbled up hungrily.

"No way!"

" **FIRE DRAGON ROAR!** "

Flames boomed out of his mouth and swept all around him, scorching anyone close by and sending everyone else flying.

He heard a scream from one of the houses.

"No, please don't…" He herd faintly.

Natsu ran to the house and Kicked down the door.

There stood a clean and suave bandit with a sword in his hand and his pants down. He was holding on to a woman with the other, her clothes ripped and showing her skin.

Her eyes were frightened and Panicked as they darted to Natsu.

He stared into those eyes.

The same ones Lucy had last night.

Exactly the same.

He felt something burning, seething inside him.

 _Is this the kind of thing that happened to Lucy?_

He couldn't….it was just…..

"Who the…" He didn't have time to finish as Natsu moved in front of him and twisted his arm that was holding the girl.

"Aggghhhhh!" Natsu heard something snap as the man let the girl go.

He set his fist on fire and swung it with all his strength at the Man's face.

The man went flying out the door at breakneck speed and smashed into the fountain outside.

"Hey, you all right?" He asked the shivering girl.

She looked at him fearfully and almost disbelieving.

He tilted his head. "You look ok." He observed, then got up to walk to the exit. "Oh well, going to beat that guy up. See ya!" He was halfway out the door when he stuck his head back in. "Next time, scream louder. I barely heard you."

Natsu walked out, his anger seeping back to him as he walked towards his target.

"Uhhhh, ohwo wait, it uh misunderstanding!" He stammered as he splashed pathetically in the fountain, trying to get away from him.

Natsu Just Roared as he punched him in the face.

The man flopped, out cold.

"WHO WANTS SOME?!" Natsu bellowed as flames danced around him.

The Bandits who were standing or the ones that still could, ran.

No big fires around, bandits running for their lives.

 _Ok. No distractions._

He set one of his fingers on fire and started drawing on the forehead of the man in the fountain.

* * *

As she rounded the corner….

Natsu was standing over a bandit in the fountain, his arms crossed and hand on his chin, a large grin on his face.

 _A thinking pose. Should I be worried?_

There were Bandits littered all around the square, unconscious or too injured to move. All their cloths had burn marks, and some were still smoking.

Natsu turned to see Lucy standing there.

"Oh hey. We done? Normaly I'd love to keep fighting, but right now I could really get some sleep."

-You are ok?- She wrote as she padded over to him

"I'm fine!" He said with his signature grin. "Just got a bit angry."

Lucy noticed his eyes. They were slitted and cat like.

Dragon Eyes.

As she watched, his pupils started to shrink back, slowly becoming round.

"I was just admiring my art. I think I've improved. I've had a lot of practice on Grey from when he was asleep."

Lucy saw on the bandit in the fountain, there was a burn on his forehead, one shaped like….

A penis.

-Real Mature.- Lucy wrote with a deadpan expression.

"You saved me." Lucy turned towards the voice.

There stood a woman, not much older than lucy, a beautiful girl. But her clothing was ripped and torn, her eyes puffy and red from crying.

"Thank you." She told Natsu with such deep sincerity.

"Hey, no problem." He replied proudly. "It's what Fairy Tail Wizards do. We always save the day!"

"If you hadn't come when you did, I would have…." She clutched her ragged clothing closer to herself as she trailed off.

Penis burned on bandit's face, Natsu angry, beautiful woman with torn cloths and a bruise on her wrist.

 _Rape. The bandit tried to rape her._

Lucy took the girl into a hug, wrapping her arms around her comfortingly.

She stiffened, but relaxed and hugged her back.

"Thank you, Thank you. Thank you." The woman repeated as she cried into Lucy's shoulder.

Lucy just held her.

* * *

The dull stone Cell. The Naked Mummy headquarters prison. A place that would give any children nightmares.

It was where Lucy had opened her eyes, and started struggling as soon as she felt the bindings on her chest and feet.

"Well would ya look at that. Naked Mummy captured the Blond Heiress."

"Yeah bro, It's incredible that Naked mummy captured the blond Heiress,

"Yeah, but the girl did beat up a lot of our guys, maybe we teach her a lesson."

"Yeah bro, I was thinking we teach her a lesson for beating up our guys."

Lucy just tried to summon a star.

 _Just one, Please!_

A fist crunched into her face, leaving her seeing stars

Another smashed into her guts, crunching her muscles and knocking the wind out of her.

Coughing and dazed, she tried to raise her hands to defend herself.

One of her hands was grabbed and slammed against a knee.

Lucy screamed as she felt and heard her bone snap.

A foot caught her chest and kicked her to the floor, a hand pinned her arm and her pinky had a boot smash down on it.

Lucy screamed again as her captor droned "This little piggy went to market."

His foot came down again on her ring finger.

"This little piggy went to town." his drawl was drowned out by screaming.

"Wait brother I think you got that one wrong."

"Yeah brother I think that I got that one wrong."

 _Concentrate, I need my star! COME ON LUCY DO IT!_

She concentrated, her eyes closed and shaking from the effort, gathering all her power. She didn't hear what the two buffoons were saying.

 ** _SINGLE STAR SHIELD!_**

A faint glow surrounded her and a point of light shone on her chest.

 _YES!_ She opened her eyes and they widened when she saw they had their penises out and ready for her.

As soon as the tool touched the glow surrounding her, there was an evil crackle.

"Ow, she has a shield bro."

"Yeah she looks like she has a shield bro."

The two idiot's voices echoed through the stone cell.

"It stung me good."

"Yeah, it stung me bro."

Lucy was terrified out of her mind, but she had her shield.

 _Those bastards can do their worst._

A crashing boom thundered down the corridor.

"WHERE'S MAH GIRL?" A familiar voice roared in rage.

 _Salt_ Lucy thought, hope rising in her chest.

Another boom sounded.

"Do you know what that was brother?"

"Hey what was that brother?"

BOOM!

The grizzled white haired man burst in through the wall, his fists out and slamming into both brothers, sending them into the wall.

"Owch." They both droned in a monotone before collapsing to the floor, out cold.

"I got ya Lucy girl, I got ya." Salt whispered as he drew the meat cleaver from his belt and slashed it through the ropes.

He picked her up, turned, and started walking out the door.

She looked up into his eyes.

He smiled as he said. "We need to get out of here. Not a good Idea keepin' my crew around people they wana kill. Kay is bad enough, but Hector has gotten rather fond of you. And Mary…."

He shivered and whispered in her ear.

"Leme tell ya, it's always the Redheads that are fuckin' terrifying."

Lucy's bottom lip quivered. She was shaking with relief.

It felt so surreal, he was just bantering like everything was normal.

 _Thank you._ She wanted to express it.

No, he deserved to hear it.

She wanted to tell him.

She opened up her mouth and tried to form the words.

Nothing.

 _Come on Lucy, do it! Tell him!_

Only a short squeak got past her lips.

He stopped and looked down at her as she struggled to speak.

"Hey now lass, I know you can't. Here."

He handed her light pen over.

"Girl, I know you can't speak easy, if at all. But that you tried...that you wanted to….It means the world to me."

Lucy could only choke back tears, and she gripped her pen tighter as he started walking again.

She just wrote in the air

-Thank you-

And again.

-Thank you-

And again, even through blurry eyes.

-Thank you-

And again, even through shaking fingers.

-Thank you-

"Enough girl." He said gently as he lowered her writing hand. "Yer family. All for one and all that shit."

As he kissed her forehead, she buried her face in his scratchy white beard and let her tears flow.

She realized that today was her thirteenth birthday.

Lucy chuckled dryly.

"What is it girl?"

She just hummed the first few bars of happy birthday.

"Today is your birthday?" Salt asked surprised. "Fuck, if ida known I'd take ya to a more fancy place than this." He joked as he swept a hand around him at the bleak stone courtyard they emerged into.

"Well it was still a party here." Hector grunted, his eyes softening in relief as he saw them.

"Yep, I was in charge of confetti. Except it was red and wet and it doesn't come out of clothing very well. Naked Mummy had a rather large supply of it." Kay snickered at her own joke.

"We promise to get you something nicer when we get back." Mary lilted soothingly.

"Yeah, first thing's a shower for this sorry lot." Salt joked.

All three were covered in blood in some way.

Kay held a dripping sword with wicked serrated spikes along the blade, blood flecking her face.

Hector's face was smeared with blood, cloths stained, but somehow his axe was impeccably clean.

And Mary. Only her hands and two knives were bloody.

"We did all the work getting in here, you just ran straight through them all." Kay reprimanded.

"Ah well. Fuck you guys. I had more important shit to do" Salt squeezed Lucy lightly in his arms as the others fell in step behind him.

"Can you please watch your mouth." Mary drawled. "We don't want Lucy picking up your bad behavior."

"Speakin of bad behavior, we haven't sung happy birthday yet!" Salt exclaimed childishly.

"Really? You want to do that now?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Salt launched into it at the top of his lungs.

The other three reluctantly joined in.

Lucy was mortified and very embarrassed.

Like any thirteen year old would be if their family sang happy birthday to her at the top of their lungs.

This is ridiculous! Three people covered in blood, one grown man with white hair all bellowing happy birthday at the top of their lungs, after she had just been kidnapped, beaten up, almost raped, then rescued.

She laughed.

After all that, they still made her feel…..human.

"Come on, you know the song, hum it with us." Salt Boomed.

As Lucy Hummed Final Bars of Happy birthday, with her new Family singing it along with her, she wrote.

-I love you guys. Thank you.-


	8. Aster Forrest

Lucy groaned as she woke up.

Her arm throbbed and she had a headache. She could tell Natsu was at her back because of the warmth.

The woman from yesterday- Claudia, hadn't felt comfortable sleeping alone, and was snuggled up to Cana.

 _Just like I did with Mary and Kay after the breakout._

Lucy just shook the memory out of her head and got up to prepare for the day. She was still wearing her normal traveling cloths, but at least she could clean them and have a bath here.

Two baths in two days. She sighed. _Just wait till i get that apartment. I am not going to leave that bath for a week._

She made her way to the bath house as she thought about the day ahead.

Hunting in Aster forrest, taking down three camps of bandits, then finding the missing people in Helleborus town, and trying to find Macao for Romeo.

 _It's strange we didn't see him on the road here. We should have seen him._

Lucy stripped and dumped her cloths in a tub of soapy water, scrubbed them on a washboard and hung them up to dry.

She jumped into the hot spring again with a large splash this time.

With a sigh of delight she relaxed and enjoyed herself.

* * *

Natsu woke up to the familiar warmth at his back fading.

He jumped up and looked around. No Lucy.

Sniff. She was near by.

He pursued her Scent downstairs, past the tempting smells of the kitchen, past the toilets and into the bathhouse.

There was a small tub which swam with her scent. He peered in to see soapy water.

Her clothes were hanging up beside the tub, her long black awesomely badass cape/cloak thingie, three quarter pants and a comfortable looking shirt both with black wing emblems on it- The Black Aquila brand.

Not the most fashionable, but extremely durable.

She was in the hotsprings again. She really loved her baths.

 _What a weirdo._

Natsu had a wicked idea as he saw a hollowed out piece of bamboo.

She still had her eyes closed, so he left his scarf by her cloths, took a deep and silent breath in, and slipped into and then under the water.

She hadn't so much as moved. Good.

He started gently heating everything around him, then pushing the water towards her, stopping only to take deep breaths from his bamboo tube.

After a minute she didn't seem to notice.

He got frustrated and swam in closer.

He saw all her scars again.

They strangely suited her. It was proof that she was the was Tough as any Fairy Tail Wizard could be.

It occurred to him that each one would have some story behind it.

Something that hurt hur, that made her sad.

But they are what made her stronger.

Natsu didn't know how to feel about the marks that littered her skin.

He decided to think about it later.

He swam right up to Lucy and suddenly started tickling her mercilessly.

She jerked and started wriggling as he kept going.

He could hear her laughing hysterically above the water, her hands trying to keep his off her skin.

She changed tactics and grabbed his shirt and pulled him up out of the water by it.

He looked at her with a big sheepish grin, and said cheekily "Hi."

Her face looked conflicted between annoyance and mirth.

He decided to keep talking to her. "You weren't in bed so I wanted to know where you were."

Lucy waved at him with her free hand as if saying hello.

She then snatched the breathing tube out of his mouth and shoved him under the water.

He came up spluttering to see her standing over him, hands on her hips and a smirk on her mouth.

He stared right back at her, eyes hooded, and a pout on his face.

She just seemed to look at him, like she was expecting something.

"What?" He asked as he stared back at her.

She reached over to the edge of the pool and got her light pen.

-Nothing.-

"Hmh. Wierdo."

-Hello pot, my name's Kettle. You're black.-

"What?"

Lucy just sighed. -You are an idiot.-

She just sank back into the water so she was covered again.

-Natsu?-

"Yeah?"

-That bandit that attacked Claudia, you broke his arm, his nose, three of his ribs, burned his face and drew a penis on his forehead. That seems a bit excessive.-

"I got a bit angry. What about it?"

-None of the other bandits were beaten that badly. What made you get angry?"

Natsu looked down. He could feel Lucy's eyes boring into him.

"She had your eyes. When you woke up from your Nightmare, you looked so scared. She had the exact same look in your eyes...and…"

 _I thought that may have happened to you. I couldn't take it, I promised to protect you. I didn't want that happening to anyone else._

He put on a smile. "I wanted to help her, like you helped me."

Not entirely a lie.

* * *

Lucy smiled as she raised her pen and wrote. -Thank you. But don't forget, you helped me as much as I helped you.-

"When?" He asked.

-You flew me away from Golem's Fist, then tried to protect me from Black Hand Regan, then you took me to Fairy Tail. And now you're my partner.-

"Huh, I don't remember the first one. I remember seeing you sit down and go to sleep, then watching you for a while, then those guys showed up and I smacked one. One of them cast a spell that hurt, then I kind of….lost control." He grimaced as he recalled.

-That reminds me, what's it like being a Dragon?-

"Dunno, what's it like being Mute?"

She glared at him. -I'm not Mute, I just can't talk. I can laugh, cry and Hum like you, I….just can't talk.-

Lucy felt a tear escape her eyes.

Natsu just looked downcast.

"Sorry. It's hard for me to share something like this." He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, please don't cry. I never wanted to see you cry again."

 _Why does it matter so much what he says? People have been rude about my lack of voice before. Why is he so different?_

"Being a dragon feels cool and all, but sometimes I can't control it. If I get angry I go wild. I hurt my friends once."

Natsu sighed.

"But being a dragon, it feels so cool. You feel your scales sliding over each other when you move, having wings and flying anytime is fun. Oh, and my magic gets a huuuuge boost. I could probably destroy a Mountain like my Dad did."

-Igneel could destroy a mountain?-

"With a single roar."

Lucy stared in awe, her tears and melancholy forgotten.

-What was he like?-

"He was a nice guy, sometimes a bit impatient. He was huge though, his scales were a really dull red, and his claws were the length of my legs. Heh, when I was a kid my body was only as big as his finger."

-Was he ever scary?-

"Nope. The only time I felt scared was when I was flying with him. I had to hold on for my life. It was so cool though."

-Maybe you could take my flying again someday.- Lucy wrote with a smile.

Natsu looked down. "Yeah. I promise."

"So what about your father?"

Lucy felt her shoulders sag. -He changed after my mother died. He wasn't the same. My adopted father was nicer. He didn't care who I was. He was kindhearted, but also gruff. He could kick ass and bake scones at the same time. I think my mother would have liked him.-

Lucy smiled. -He's also the one who rescued me from Naked Mummy. Salt Morris.-

"He sounds awesome."

-He is. was.-

She saw Natsu staring at her correction, then lower his head.

* * *

Cana set beneath the open window, struggling to catch the scraps of talk that floated in on the breeze.

He was Talking about Igneel. _Since when did he do that?_

 _Has he ever shared that with anyone?_

 _He even apologized for making Lucy cry! Since when is Natsu sensitive to others?_

 _Never!_

 _Is it her?_

Cana peered out the window at Lucy.

Lucy was facing Natsu, writing her own history into the air, with him watching her every word.

 _Master was right then._

Cana now had a lot more to think about and consider.

But she also had a girl in her bed to mess with. Cana shifted herself back into her bed, putting herself and Claudia into a compromising position.

As her eyes closed she began to think about all that had happened.

Processing it.

* * *

"I'm really sorry for imposing on you." Claudia spoke shyly as they traversed the road to Aster forrest.

"Hey, it's no problem." Cana grinned at her.

Claudia just blushed and looked away.

 _What the hell did Cana do to her while we were in the bath?_ Lucy wondered as she and Natsu followed behind the two girls.

Whatever the case was, she and her clothes were cleaner than ever before.

 _Note to self though, be more careful when getting Natsu to dry cloths._

Her frayed sleeve had been blackened and burned.

Lucy clapped her hands to get everyone's attention and when they looked, she pointed her hand to a trail that lead upwards, with a sign that read 'Aster Lookout'.

"Hm? Why'd you wana go up there Luce?"

"Yeah, Aster Forrest is this way."

-Stop for Lunch, and the second reason I brought Cana along.-

"Ok, I'm curious now." Cana stated as she followed Lucy up the hill, leaving Natsu and Claudia to tail them.

-So Cana, Happy and Claudia will go straight to Helleborus town, Cana takes Claudia to her parent's house and then makes a start on the job with Happy. Meanwhile, me and Natsu will clear out the Bandits, then meet up with Cana when we are done.-

Cana smirked. "Leave you two to bond over excessive Violence. Great idea."

Lucy sighed as Natsu grinned.

"I'm always ready for more action!" He waffled through a mouthful of food.

-Swallow you Idiot.-

Cana snickered.

"What?" Natsu asked through his now clear mouth.

-She has her mind in the gutter.-

"Speaking of me, why are we up here again? I mean the picnic is great and all."

"Yeah Luce, Your food is Tasty"

Claudia was munching on a sandwich of her own. "How did you get all this made in the few minutes before we left?"

-Practice. Waaaay too much practice. As to why here: Cana, You got your tracking cards?-

"Always."

-Can you use Macao's Card please?-

"Sure. What for though?"

-I want to check on him for Romeo. If he's still on Mt Hakobe then we can check in on him.-

"That's the fairy tail spirit." Natsu smiled warmly.

"I'll say. You'll fit in nicely." Cana was smiling a well.

She picked out one of the cards in her deck and her face frowned in concentration.

"Yup, he's still at Mt Hakobe. or at least up on the mountain."

Lucy nodded.

-Ok, Natsu. Let's go bandit hunting.- Lucy beckoned as she started walking down the hill.

He grinned as he followed. "Sounds like fun."

"Good luck!" "Take care!" "Take em' down!" Cana, Claudia and Happy called after them.

* * *

"All Right, two down, just this one left."

-We haven't found the bandit Leader yet. He must be in here.-

They were crouched behind a tree not far from the gate into the log fort.

Lucy had convinced Natsu to stay quiet and still, giving her the opportunity to watch the guards and give them the element of surprise.

These guards looked much more Alert, much better armed and armored.

May be a challenge. Lucy grimaced.

"What's that look for?" He whispered.

-These guys may be tougher. Don't underestimate them once we are inside.-

"Got it."

-Ready?-

He nodded.

She raised her hand as she gathered her stars.

 _Almost….There! Thirteen!_

 _ **FOUR STAR FIELD: SPEED!**_

The stars glowed under their feet and Lucy swiped her hand down.

Natsu rocketed off the mark, his fist flaming, Lucy rushing right behind him.

" **FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!** " He yelled as his fist smashed into the Wooden Gate.

CRACK! wood splintered as the door broke.

The rest of the gatehouse and remaining pieces of door all strained under the Injury.

Natsu stopped at his punch and Lucy rushed by him, gathering six stars in front of her.

She stopped just inside the door and the stars glowed and spun in a circle.

 _ **SIX STAR STREAM: STARDUST STORM!**_

The stars started slowly dissolving, unleashing a torrent of glowing dust and energy in a cone in front of her.

It boomed through the shacks, the tents and the bandits.

Lucy heard yells and creaks as her stardust swept over the camp.

All the stars had dissolved and the stream thinned and faded.

"See? Good as a dragon roar. Not as strong as mine though."

Lucy looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes showing amusement.

-It got the job done.-

"Yeah but look at that, the houses are all standing, and those guys are getting up."

-It wasn't meant to take them down. Intimidation, show of force and weakening a lot at once.-

"I could just burn these places to the ground."

-Like I said, if things get bad, then do just that. Otherwise, we take them down the gentle way.-

"Tch, softie."

Lucy just smirked back at him.

They bantered as the stardust cleared, the bandits getting to their feet to draw their weapons or flee.

-Remember, stay together. You go first.-

Natsu grinned. "I'm all fired up now!"

His fists on fire and hers glowing with starlight they started running further into the camp.


	9. Fire and Snow

Flames boomed and stars shone as Natsu and Lucy punched their way through the horde of bandits.

Natsu halted as he came to a large and ornate looking tent.

"Must be in here." Natsu stated as he looked over his shoulder at her.

She nodded, her grip on her stars tightening.

They both burst inside the tent….

...to find it empty.

 _What? Then where the hell is the leader?_

Purple flashed around them.

 _A trap? She thought as the runes flashed into existence._

There was a boom and suddenly everything was heavy. Her arms felt like they weighed double what they normally did.

 _Gravity Magic._

Things got heavier and heavier as they both thudded to the ground.

Lucy had trouble even keeping her head up.

The weight grew and grew, pressing on her head until She saw black.

* * *

Lucy's awareness grew.

 _Awake._

 _Keep eyes closed, keep breathing slowly._

 _Body- hurting, hands bound behind me, something is supporting me, round, wood. I'm tied to a post._

 _Magic? no, nullifiers in the rope._

 _Great. captured again._

Lucy tried to listen to things around her.

"Boss, we can't keep holding him like this."

"What the hell is he?"

She felt the cold metal of a knife against her skin, tracing along her arm.

"Boy, I suggest you quit making a fuss. She'll look prettier with all her blood still inside her. Get me?"

She heard Natsu growl.

"Now Little lady, I know you are awake."

Lucy opened her eyes to see the bandit leader.

Pale skin, draped in a red fur that matched his red trousers.

He looked at her piercingly.

 _He must be 'Hot Dog.'_

"My months of careful planning. Ruined thanks to a bunch of snotty little teenagers." He uttered smoothly.

Lucy just kept looking around casualy. Natsu was surrounded by four mages who were keeping him on the ground with Gravity Magic.

"All three of my camps, the supply and weapons Cache gone. My reputation, gone! My men all beaten or ran away!"

His voice rose and rose until he was yelling in her face.

She didn't even give him an indication she heard him.

She didn't even look at him.

Hir face furious, he plunged his knife into her arm.

"LUCY!"

 _I'm glad pain doesn't affect me like it used to._

Her arm stung and throbbed as the metal moved inside her, but it was just an annoyance.

"How does that feel?"

She just smiled sweetly at him.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

She childishly stuck her tongue out and made a farting sound.

"You think Its funny? To ruin me and not have the decency to talk to me? To look down on me like I'm some sort of trash?"

He punched her in the gut, leaving her coughing.

"Not so tough now are you? Not so strong huh?"

Lucy thought about it as she heaved in air.

She started to chuckle, then Laugh.

Hot Dog just stepped back, looking at her as if she was some kind of monster.

 _I've never been strong. I'v always been scared._ She glared back at him with a defiant smirk.

"You evil little….you Inhuman bitch!" Hot Dog yelled as he started beating Lucy.

His fists pounding every inch of her body.

"No! LUCY!"

* * *

Natsu watched in horror as the Bandit Leader beat Lucy.

Nothing showed on her face as she received fist after fist.

He couldn't do Anything, his Limbs were still heavy.

The four bandits around him still had their hands out, their power keeping the gravity magic spell working.

 _I'm supposed to be protecting you!_

The Man in red stopped and stood back, a look of horror in his face.

Lucy was smiling again.

The man said something, and drew a rusty and nicked cleaver from his belt.

"Die!" He yelled as he raised the blade over his head.

Time slowed down for Natsu.

He's going to Kill her?

Dead?

In his mind all he saw was a gravestone on an ocean cliff, overlooking the sunset.

 _I can't Lose her too._

 _I WON'T LOSE HER TOO!_

* * *

 _That's right, swing your cleaver you moron, I may get a little bloody, but my ropes will be cut._

Suddenly heat billowed, blasting everything like a shockwave.

An inhuman growl filled the air

Natsu?

Her eyes fell on the boy….

...the dragon.

Slitted green eyes gleamed out of the scaly reptilian body.

It was the first time Lucy had seen Natsu's dragon form in the sunlight.

Reddish pink scales, a shade darker than his hair. Leathery wings on his back. Gleaming white teeth and talons. Tail swishing angrily behind him. His maw billowing smoke.

"What the Fuck?!" Hot dog Screamed.

Natsu broke free of the gravity spell easily and spun his tail, smacking the four wizards trying to keep him restrained.

He leaped over to Hot dog and gave him a flaming dragon punch in his gut, sending him flying into a section of the Log wall.

Hearing the scream, bandits started flooding in, charging the Dragon.

Lucy watched as Natsu swatted bandits away left and right, as if they were flies.

She picked up the Bandit Leader's blade with her feet and struggled to get it into her hands.

His roar echoed through the camp as Bandits flew through the air.

Fire billowed out of his mouth, setting tents and log walls ablaze.

Natsu's eyes met hers as she finished cutting her bindings and stood up.

He plodded over to her and his eyes glinted at her.

It was an animal that looked her over.

The dragon's head butted her shoulder.

She put a hand on his head as he breathed heavily.

His breath was slowing, he was calming.

He pulled back and she looked into his eyes.

They softened in recognition.

"Lucy?"

 _Back to his old self._

Lucy ran her hands over Natsu's scales as she hummed in response, and he let out what sounded like a chuckle.

"That tickles." He rumbled.

Lucy felt an evil grin grow on her face.

 _Payback time._

"Ok, what's the grin fo…" Natsu started as she jumped on his back.

Lucy started digging in and wiggling her fingers into any sensitive looking area.

"Hey, what arrra, hehehehhe."

She slipped a hand under the scales near his neck and tickled.

"Noohaaahahha, Lucy! nooah, not there! Hahahaha!"

Natsu laughed hysterically as he wriggled around.

With a slight jerk and turning his back, he sent Lucy rolling off him.

The boy turned Dragon had an amused look on his face as he stood over her, looking down on her.

His grin grew as he lowered his head to her.

What is he doing?

He opened his mouth and his tongue flopped out.

 _Oh dear no._

With a giant slurp Natsu licked all the way up her face.

 _Oh, eewww._

Lucy felt dragon saliva dribble down her face as Natsu giggled Maniacally.

She quickly wiped her face on the bottom of her cloak.

"Thanks for the scratch."

Her hand reached out and smacked Natsu's snout as she got up.

Lucy surveyed her surroundings.

Everything on fire. She still had her keys, but her dagger and both their bags were on a bench behind a curtain of flame.

 _And here I was tickling a dragon._

She reached for her pouch, Empty. No light pen.

 _Shit._

Lucy pointed to the fire separating them from their bags and made an eating motion.

"Eat the fire?"

She nodded.

He sucked in and the flames danced and flowed, streaming into Natsu's waiting mouth.

She rushed over to the bags and looked them over.

The bags were undamaged, but her dagger was a bit blackened, and her light pen was charred and melted.

"We good to go?" Natsu asked. "I can fly you up to the mountain before you change me back if you want."

Lucy showed Natsu the melted pen.

"Well that's not good."

She crouched down to the dirt and wrote.

-Can you eat all this fire? We don't need another forest fire.-

"You sure we'll be ok without your pen?"

-We'll manage.-

Natsu nodded. "Alright. Hop on."

Lucy slung both backpacks over her shoulders and clambered onto Natsu's back.

"Ready?" Natsu asked, his neck snaking over his shoulder to look back at her.

Lucy nodded and found places in his scales where she could hang on.

His wings unfurled and started beating.

He took a leap into the air, his wings still flapping- taking to the air.

Wheeling around, he sucked in, the fire streaming into his Maw.

His feet brushed the treetops as he slurped and munched the inferno.

"Tasty." Natsu rumbled before banking lazily and making towards Mt Hakabe.

Lucy just watched as the ground below her racing by.

It was peaceful up in the air. Well, apart from the wind and the cold.

She giggled as she raised her hand, the air pushing against it.

"Hey Luce." Natsu chuckled as he glanced over his shoulder at her. "Hold on"

She wrapped her hands around the base of his neck, looking at him questioningly.

Then he began tilting.

She held into him with a death grip as he kept turning until he was upside down.

Lucy cried out in alarm, keeping her arm tight around him, her palm slapping his neck.

Natsu continued his rotation until he was upright again.

As soon as he stopped rotating she smacked his neck.

He flashed a toothy dragonic smile over his shoulder, seeing her unhappy expression.

"Fine, fine. We can save the fun stuff for another time." He huffed.

The horizon turned white as they soared over snow.

Winds were starting to howl around them, gripping the snow and sending it into the sky.

Natsu's wingbeats were more forced.

They were being buffeted around by the storm.

Lucy slapped on Natsu's neck to get his attention.

When he glanced back at her, she frantically motioned 'down'

He nodded and started to descend.

"I see a house, there's nobody home. I'm going there." Natsu boomed.

Lucy could hardly see anything in the storm now.

Her stomach backflipped as they suddenly dropped straight down.

The wind left her as Natsu jarringly thumped the ground.

She barely saw the cabin in front of them, the snowstorm was so thick.

Her teeth chattering, she jumped off natsu and tried the door.

Locked.

She drew her dagger and slid it in the tiny gap between door and wall.

 _Little wiggle to loosen it, then jerk upwards and push door_.

The door creaked open and Lucy stepped inside.

Natsu squeezed through carefully.

Lucy had to push the small dining table aside so Natsu could sit in the room.

As he sat down and curled up like a cat, she struggled to find a pen and paper.

When she got it she went and settled down, leaning on Natsu's belly in the middle of his curl.

"You ok? you seem a bit jumpy."

-I hate feeling really cold. I love winter and snow, but being too cold and numb...It reminds me of death.-

"Death?"

-It brings up unpleasant memories.-

Natsu said nothing, but if she wasn't imagining things, he got warmer.

-Anyway, give me a minute to rest, then I'll try heal you.-

"That's fine. I'm going to take a nap."

Lucy nodded as she put the pen and paper aside and closed her eyes, feeling the familiar warmth at her back.


	10. Vulcans

Natsu's eye peeked open as he saw Lucy's starlight shining around him.

He closed it again and relaxed into its soft warmth, feeling softer.

His scales started falling off, he felt his nose and mouth start to retreat back into his face, his tail shrinking.

With crackles and thumps of scales falling on the wood floor, Natsu returned to normal.

Ahhh, human again.

He sat up and met Lucy's eyes as she looked back at him, starlight still shining from her eyes and hands.

"You're amazing you know that? That would have taken me a few weeks to go normal. You do it in a few seconds."

She smiled as the starlight faded.

She wrote and showed him the paper. -So where we going from here? You know where we are?-

"Yeah, I saw the town from above. I know the way."

-Will you be ok?-

Lucy was looking into his eyes concerned.

He grinned back. "Don't worry, I'm strong enough to take on anything in our path. And besides, the both of us together could beat every monster on this mountain."

She did look a bit more at ease as she walked over to the window.

-The storm is letting up. get dressed and we'll go.- She wrote and showed him.

"Yeah, the sooner this job is over, the sooner you can get a new light pen. And your money." He commented as he slipped on his spare pants.

Lucy smirked as she opened the door and let the cold flow in.

"Hey! Lucy!"

She just kept smirking, flapping her hand in a 'hurry up' gesture.

Natsu finished dressing and ran out the door, with Lucy locking the door and trotting after him.

* * *

Lucy poked him again.

"Yup. we're going the right way. C'mon Luce don't you have any faith in my nose? I could find Cana's scent anywhere."

Lucy made a motion, like she was chugging a drink.

"Yep, the Alcohol."

"NATSU! LUCY!" Happy swooped down on them and landed in Natsu's arms.

"Happy, you ok? where's Cana?"

"Cana got taken by Vulcan!. They jumped us when we were following the trail and they were really freaky!"

Lucy put a hand on Happy's head to get his attention, and held out her hand telling him to stop.

She motioned for him to take a deep breath, which he did.

-Tell us from the start. What happened?- She wrote and showed him.

"Ok, we got to Helleborus town, and the Innkeeper who posted the job told us people had been going missing, and there was a trail, and that people who followed the trail never came back." Happy took a deep breath and continued. "So me and Cana went to scout it out, but Vulcans attacked us. Cana told me to get away and warn you guys."

Natsu met her eyes and they both nodded.

"Which way Happy?"

"That way" He pointed to the right, towards a large Icy hill.

Natsu and Lucy started running to the hill.

They vaulted over fallen logs and waded through snowdrifts until they came to a trail.

"This is the trail, just follow it up the hill!"

 _ **FOUR STAR FIELD: SPEED!**_

Stars glowed in a square at their feet.

"Nice Lucy. Ready?"

 _set_ She gave him the thumbs up.

"Let's go!"

They both boomed off the mark, their speed enhancement pushing them up the hill at a resounding speed.

Traps snapped shut behind them as they sped right through them.

Snow sprayed around them, torn up beneath their feet.

They skidded to a halt at the entrance to a cave as the speed wore off.

Their fists glowing with their magic, they burst into the cave.

The Cave was filled with Vulcans, who had Cana tied up near the back.

"Narsu! Lucy! Be careful!" Cana yelled out. "These Vulcans are the Missing Villagers! They've all been taken over! And they're Ughhhrrr"

One of the Vulcans bound Cana's mouth.

Cana still struggled against her bonds.

"That's right! Vulcans are stronger and Smarter when they take over others."

Happy informed them from Natsu's shoulder as the boy pounded into the horde of Vulcans.

Lucy met punches with her own until she received a solid slug to her shoulder.

 _Not good, I'm still tired from fighting Bandits and healing Natsu._

She ducked under another fist and flipped away from another.

 _And from the look of it Natsu is tired as well._

He was slugging it out, surrounded by vulcans, and where one was knocked aside, another took its place.

 _New strategy._ _**SINGLE STAR SHIELD: STARLIGHT AEGIS!**_

A single star appeared and expanded, then flattening, then morphed into a solid material.

On her arm was now a shield in the shape of a star sitting inside a circle, made of a strong and Luminous golden metal.

Rolling away from a large fist, she sprinted towards Natsu, drawing Taurose's Key.

The second she reached him, she swiped the key.

Tauros appeared beside them in a flash.

"Hellooooo miss Luuuucy."

"Hey Cowman!" Natsu cried delightedly as lucy put away the key and drew her dagger.

"Hellooooo, I haven't met youuuuu properly." Taurus talked as he swung his axe, keeping Vulcans at bay.

"The name's Natsu."

"Moooo, I am the Golden Bull Taurus. I think miss Luuuucy will protect us while we beat these duuuuuudes."

Lucy nodded as Natsu glanced at her.

"How can you tell?"

"I appeared behind her, and she has her shield tooooooo."

"Fair enough. Alright then Cowman, let's get to work!"

She could only wait and let her shield soak up the hits while Taurus and Natsu worked behind her.

Vulcans went flying everywhere.

Her shield was always moving, deflecting fists.

A vulcan decided to crash tackle her, but she barely managed to keep herself upright.

Lucy banged her shield on it's head repeatedly and it released her.

She heard Natsu Roar behind her, and flames billowed and blazed through the icy cavern.

All the Vulcans went flying away, smashing into the wall.

There was only one left, standing at the back of the cavern guarding Cana.

 _How does Natsu have so much energy? He looks as tired as I am._

There was quiet as Human and Vulcan faced off, all the Vulcans partially embedded into the wall glowing and changing back into humans.

Lucy surveyed the scene.

 _I can't hold on to Taurus for too much longer, both me and Natsu are tired._

 _We need to get Cana back._

Lucy touched Taurus' arm to get his attention, then she drew and spun her dagger in the air.

"Diversion eh Miss Luuuuucy?" Taurus mused quietly.

She nodded.

Taurus charged the Vulcan head on, his axe raised high.

Lucy ran right behind him.

"Lucy, what...?" Natsu called behind her

Taurus clashed with the Vulcan and she darted out from behind him, cutting Cana's bindings with a single swipe.

Cana ripped the gag off herself, and drew her cards.

"Come here Asshole! Trixter! Ruler! Moon! Death! **Black Tempest**!

Dark winds burst from her cards and carried the vulcan across the cavern, giving it cuts from the dark crescents mixed into the gale.

The Vulcan hit the ground, but just got back up with a growl.

Taurus vanished in a golden light mid charge.

Natsu closed in for a flaming punch, but the Vulcan skipped nimbly away.

Cana's Cards caused another gale, but this time it ducked and curled up so It wouldn't get carried away.

Lucy jumped in front of the Vulcan, knife and shield in hand.

It tried to swing at her, but she caught it on her shield and swiped with her dagger.

Her blade barely caught it as it pivoted back, blood now flowing from it's side from the shallow cut.

Lucy chased the Vulcan, Always staying close to it so it couldn't hit her properly.

She saw the Vulcan rise up and felt an impact on her chest. _A Kick?_

There was a crack as she went flying across the cavern and smacked into an icy boulder.

"Lucy!" Both Natsu and Cana called.

* * *

Natsu growled as he spoke "Cana! both of us at once!"

"I hear ya!" She replied with a savage smirk.

" **FIRE DRAGON ROAAAAR!** "

" **HOLY FIRE!** "

The Inferno boomed towards the Vulcan, smashing into it.

It writhed and wriggled as it attempted to move out of the flames.

As the flames let up, the Vulcan came rushing out of it, smashing Cana in the face, sending her to the floor.

Natsu roared his rage as he shot towards the Vulcan, fists blazing.

They exchanged blow after blow, fists smacking each other, neither of them gaining the upper hand.

* * *

Lucy groaned as she pulled herself up.

 _Broken Rib_. She thought as pain shot through her chest

Her shield was gone. Her magic was practically empty.

She saw Natsu sluggin it out with the Vulcan, his fists on fire.

Cana was groaning and holding her head, struggling to pull herself off the floor.

 _Last ditch then_.

Lucy generated one last star, sending it over to Natsu.

* * *

Natsu felt a tingle on his chest and saw his body get engulfed in starlight.

 _Lucy!_

He wanted to check, to look and see if she was ok. The vulcan held all his attention though.

He drew back for the biggest punch he could pull.

The Vulcan smashed a fist into the opening Natsu left.

Natsu felt like someone had smacked his face with a wet cloth, not the fist of a giant hyped up Vulcan.

 _Thanks Luce._

He let his fist rip, the flames boosting his arm and sending it straight into the Vulcan's face.

The vulcan staggered around.

It collapsed to the ground.

 _And he's down!_

"Allright!"

Cheers and relieved cries filled the cavern.

All the Villagers around them were offering their congratulations.

"Wow, these guys are amazing."

"No kidding."

"So strong!"

"Woah, I thought I heard one of her bones crack, how is she standing?"

He turned to see Cana and Lucy on their feet.

Cana looked relatively fine apart fron the giant bruise that was forming on her face, but Lucy was still clutching her side.

"Luce? You ok?"

She nodded slowly.

"Doesn't look like it." Cana stage whispered.

A gleam of light caught their attention.

The big boss Vulcan was morphing.

A blue haired man was left when it finished.

"Macao!" Natsu and Cana cried as they rushed over to him.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood as he opened his eyes.

"Damn. I'm such a failure." He lamented weakly.

"Took down a nest of twenty Vulcans. And fell into this one on the way back."

"He's losing blood too quickly." Cana stated as she examined his wounds. "Anyone here a doctor?"

The villagers all shook their head or said no.

"Tch." Natsu raised a flaming hand. "Macao, hold on. We need to stop the bleeding and this is the only way."

A hand stopped him as he moved it towards the wound.

He looked up to see Lucy's face, pained and concentrating.

The effort twisting her features.

Five stars slowly formed around the four of them, the soft glow washing all of them. The bruise on half Cana's face reduced, Macao's wounds stopped bleeding, and Natsu himself felt softness seep into his bones.

He heard a cracking sound coming from Lucy and the light flickered and died.

Natsu swept in and easily caught her.

"Luce? You ok?"

Cana looked her over. "Relax. She's just unconscious. She really pushed herself. I think that was her broken rib she just healed."

He saw a smile form on Cana's lips as she looked in his eyes.

"You really know how to pick em Natsu."

Before he could reply she turned to the villagers.

"Right! Those who can stand, support someone who can't. I also need a nice strong man to help me carry Macao. We're headed back to town people!"

Her little speech was greeted with cheers or calls while Natsu hoisted Lucy up into his arms, starting towards Helleborus town.

* * *

Lucy's eyes fluttered open.

"Luce!" Natsu was sitting there, right next to her bed.

 _Bed? What?_

"oh yeah, we found a new one for you." Grinning, he passed her a brand new Light Pen.

Her side twinged with pain as she sat up.

"Hey hey, easy there." Claudia had come in with a large tray of food.

"Your cracked rib was partially healed by your magic, but it's still tender."

Lucy was careful, but she got up anyways.

-Thanks Claudia. I think i'll sit up to eat though.-

"The whole town is treating us like heroes. we saved half of their people and we defeated two huge Vulcan nests."

-Wait, Macao took out what we did in one shot? on his own?-

"Yep."

Lucy just looked at him in amazement.

-How is Macao?-

"Now you can walk, you can see yourself. Come on." Natsu urged.

She shakily followed him as he walked out the door.

"Claudia, you can come too, we'll eat with Macao."

They walked out the door and followed the corridor outside.

"How do you feel Luce?"

-Like I was punched by a vulcan.-

He just grinned at her as he opened the door and stepped in.

"Yo! Macao!"

"Ah, my rescuers. Hey Natsu. This is your new partner?"

-I'm Lucy, nice to meet you.-

"Lucy hey? You're a gutsy one alright."

"You need to see her fight Macao, she was actually pretty good." Cana gave a little smirk as she stood over Macao's bed.

Lucy went up and gave her a hug in greeting.

"Hey, glad to see you're doing better. How's the rib?"

-Tender-

"Woman of few words." Macao chuckled.

"So when are we going home?" Natsu asked.

"Macao's still injured you idiot." Cana berated him.

"Nah, I'm good to go, I want to get home to Romeo as soon as I can. I've been gone too long already."

-Which means carriage.-

"Oh no." Natsu looked queasy already.

-And we need to pass by Aster Town to collect our reward too.-

"You guys went to Aster town too?" Macao asked.

"Yep. Like i said, she started her guild career with a tour de force." Cana had gotten out the job requests and showed them to him.

"And she chose to come this direction because Romeo was getting worried about you, and she wanted to check on you."

"Quite the capable woman then. In any case Lucy. Thank you for saving me."

-You are welcome.-

"Now can we get this show on the road?" Macao asked as he struggled to get out of bed.

"Aye Sir!" Happy popped out from under the end of Macao's sheets.

* * *

"Uhhhhhh.'

-29-

Cana and Happy were laughing as they continued.

"I hate carriages"

-121-

"Help meeee…"

-4-

"Why meeeee?"

-17-

"What are they doing?" Macao asked.

"Lucy's actually counted the number of timed Natsu has said things in their Carriage rides together." Cana managed to gasp.

-It gets old really quickly though- Lucy wrote despite her massive grin.

"Why did I decide to do this?"

-69th!-

Macao started chuckling as Cana and Happy fell to the carriage floor in fits of Laughter.

* * *

"Cana, you don't have to carry me like this."

"Zip it, you can't walk very well."

"You don't have to bridal carry him though." Natsu harrumphed.

What are you saying Natsu?" Happy chirped then put on an imitation of Elfman. "A real man should be able to be carried if they want!"

They all smirked at Macao grimace.

"Fine, I'll put you down."

"Yiaaaa! Carefull woman! I almost felt things break."

Lucy stretched out as they walked through Magnolia park, watching her guildmates in front of her.

The green in Natsu's face was fading, and Cana was helping Macao limp towards Romeo's favorite spot in the gardens.

"DAD!" Romeo cried as he rushed towards them.

"I'm sorry, I…"

Macao just took him in a huge hug.

"I'm all right. Next time ask those kids if their parents can take out a whole Vulcan Nest on their own."

Romeo just leaked more tears as he hugged Macao harder.

The other three's eyes just met and they all smiled at each other as they started to walk away.

She heard whispering behind her.

"Thank you Cana, thank you Natsu! and most of all, thank you Lucy!"

Romeo called after them.

Lucy just smiled as they walked back to the guild hall.


	11. Home

"Not a bad place Lucy." Cana commented as she flopped down onto one of the couches.

-Only 70 Thousand Jewl a month. Rent paid, Deposit down. So it's all mine.-

"So this is why you picked so many jobs. You still have quite a bit of Money left over though right?" Cana asked as she rolled over and got out her cards.

-I need a better bed, more bookshelves, a desk and some rugs. Also money to afford to feed Natsu when we go on Jobs.-

Lucy scrawled absently as she thought about how she wanted everything.

 _Natsu won't be back for a little while. And I want to test out the bath._

-Taking a bath.- She wrote before stripping down and heading to the bathroom.

"You know you got a pretty good body. Why do you always hide behind your cloak?"

She stopped at the door to write. -When you are traveling alone, it's better not to draw attention. Don't get me wrong; I love my body, it just draws too much attention and i'm easily recognised.-

"Plus that cloak looks frekin awesome." Natsu added as he climbed in the window.

"What the hell?" Cana exclaimed.

-What is it with you walking in on me while I'm Naked?-

"Why are you always Naked?" He responded.

-I don't know why I argue with you.- Lucy wrote behind her as she headed into her bath.

"You reported to Mira?" She heard Cana ask.

"All done. Happy's taking our share home. Oh yeah, Lucy! Levy said she was coming over with a housewarming gift."

She hummed an 'Ok' loudly as she settled into the warm waters.

"Anyways, i promised Happy i'd go fishing with him. I'll see you Later Luce!"

She hummed an ok again.

A minute of relaxing later, Cana came into the bathroom, also Naked and sat in the bath as well.

"This is nice. I can see why you wanted this apartment." She sighed.

-Do you always hop into baths with other people?-

"There usually aren't many baths i can just hop into. I do like seeing the look on people's faces when I do something embarrassing to them."

-Like what happened with you and Claudia the morning before going to Helleborus town?-

"Oh, you noticed that?" Cana asked with a grin.

"I kind of snuggled up to her, and had one of my hands under her shirt. She ended up kissing me when she was half asleep."

Lucy made a surprised noise.

"Yep. when she woke up and realised, she was really embarrassed, but she wanted to try it awake. So she kissed me again."

She sighed. "It was fun, but I think I'll stick to loving my alcohol until I find a good man."

-Hey, what happened to Claudia after we left?- Lucy just remembered, also trying to change the subject. Quickly.

"She was with her parents in Helleborus town. She said we are welcome to visit her again, whether she was there or in Aster town."

-We'll have to visit her sometime.-

"Hm." Cana hummed her own agreement as she sat back.

Lucy relaxed against the tub walls and closed her eyes, basking in the comfortable silence.

* * *

"Hey Natsu?" Happy asked, looking up from the river.

"Yeah?"

"Why is Lucy always quiet?"

Natsu looked up to the tree branches between them and the sky. The sound of the river reminded him of their first night camping together.

"I don't know why, but she has this massive scar on her neck. Whatever happened wasn't good."

"Is that why she had that nightmare on the way to Aster town?"

"You saw that huh?" Natsu grimaced.

"Me and Cana weren't actually asleep when it happened." Happy set his gaze back to his fishing.

"Did you see her scars at the bathhouse?"

"No, I was too busy eating my fish."

"With the amount of pain she must have gone through, she may just be as strong as Erza."

"No one's as strong as Erza." Happy jeered.

"No, I mean Erza could easily beat Lucy in a fight. But in getting up after being pounded into the ground."

Natsu was having trouble finding the words to describe it.

"Fortitude and resilience?" Happy offered.

"I think so, yeah."

"Is that why you like her so much?"

Natsu spluttered, but he stopped and thought about what Happy just said.

"Did I tell you how we met?"

"Nope, you wanted to go on those jobs with Lucy."

"we first met when I was a Dragon."

"Hah?" Happy almost dropped his rod.

"I kind of kidnapped her, and instead of running, she stayed with me, and even used her magic to change me back."

"That's…." Happy was lost for words.

 _Hah. That's new._

"You mean if Lucy's here you won't need to go away as much?"

Natsu grinned at his old friend. "Yep, and I can go all out fighting and she'll be there if I start to turn."

"Don't count her out though." Happy admonished. "I saw her fight tooth and nail against those Vulcans."

"I know she's tough."

"Still a bit scary though."

"Yeah." Natsu admitted with a laugh.

He realised that was the truth, but why was he so afraid?

 _I'm not actually afraid_ _ **of**_ _her._

"Well, Gildarts will be happy he doesn't have to deal with you going on rampages any more." Happy pointed out.

"Yeah, once he finally gets back. How long's he been gone?"

"Three years now? Or was it Two?"

"Jeze. He's always away."

Happy agreed as he reeled in a fish.

"You know If I had Lucy at my back, I could probably beat Erza."

"Hah, keep dreaming."

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes. she must have dozed off.

The evening light filtered through the open bathroom door, and Cana was gone.

 _She must have let me sleep._

Lucy got out of the still warm bath, still overjoyed that the furnace in her room was connected to the bath.

She dried off and put her cloths on. She still had to buy some bookshelves, a rug and her dinner.

The canal gurgled as it flowed, birds chirping their last chirps for the day, and people moseying on the sidewalk to get home.

Lucy stepped out of the apartment, waving to the landlady through the window as she walked by.

Her hood was down and her cloak was open behind her acting like a cape.

The black wing pattern of the Black aquila brand showing on her garments.

 _I need to go clothes shopping too. It'll be nice to have a change of cloths for well...a change._

Lucy realised how much would change now that she had a place all of her own to live.

 _I can have a bath every day, I'll have a proper toilet, I won't have to store all my books with horologium, I have my very own bed, I have my own kitchen to cook in, I can start writing again…_

She tried to think of more, but she was already overjoyed at what she could now do.

Lucy hummed as she cruised down the street, looking out for a store she could explore.

Someone bumped into her roughly.

"Hey, watch where….."

She stepped back to glare at whoever had bumped her, but the man was already wide eyed, staring at her in abject terror.

Black hand Regan.

Her fists glowed as she squared her shoulders and took a fighting stance.

He just raised his hand, backing away.

Regan kept backing up, moving into an alleyway.

"I'm sorry, no, please don't hurt me!"

She kept one of her hands up as she got out her pen.

-Why are you here?-

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd be here, I was just doing what I was told!"

-You are a guild leader. Who tells you to do anything?-

"That boy with the claws, the Salamander kid! He told me he'd keep you from beating me up if I took down all the job requests for your kidnapping! Please, I did what you asked, just don't hurt me again!"

Lucy stared at him.

 _Natsu did that?_

-You really did that?-

"Yes!" He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stack of papers, tossing them lightly at her feet.

All of them had a picture of her from when she was younger.

 _Wanted Alive- Lucy Heartfilia. 5,000,000 Jewl reward for her capture and Delivery to the heartfilia Estate._ She read the notice again.

There had to be almost thirty posters here.

She screwed one up and stuffed it in her pocket and tore the rest of them up.

-Thank you. You'll never see me again.- She wrote as she turned and walked out of the alley.

Natsu really did that for me? we had only just met at that point.

She shrugged her cloak back around her and put her hood up as she thought.

If he trusted her, then maybe she could trust him with….

Lucy had another thing to add to her shopping list now.

* * *

Levy stood quietly around the corner as Lucy left the alleyway.

She clutched the book, lucy's housewarming gift- to her chest tightly.

Than the mean looking man left the alley too.

He looked shaken up and afraid.

"Are you ok?" She asked the man.

He was silent for a moment. "I'm fine." He stated gruffly.

"What happened with you two in there?" Levy asked innocently.

"That girl is nuts. Along with her psycho boyfriend. I need to go."

He hurried off.

 _So what do I know from that? This guy is afraid of Natsu and especially Lucy. Lucy has a kidnapping request and Natsu told the guy, threatened more likely, to take the requests down._

She walked down the alleyway to see the posters that the dark man had dropped and Lucy had ripped.

With the two halves together she saw and read the whole notice.

 _A reward this high! No wonder she wears the cloak, it makes a great disguise. And a kidnapping request means dark guild._

She smiled to herself.

 _Clever Natsu, that was a stroke of genius to make a dark guild member take down the requests in other dark guilds.._

Levy neatly folded up the torn notice and slipped it into her pockets, turned and hurried to catch up to Lucy.

 _I shouldn't leave her alone, and maybe I can learn something more about her._

 _I'll need to tell master Makarov later._

Levy huffed in annoyance.

 _Usually I love mysteries, but not when my own friend's safety is in the balance._

Levy half turned and wrote 'Fire' in the air with her light pen.

The word lit blazed with flames and streaked towards the posters, engulfing them.

* * *

"Lucy!"

She heard her name and turned.

Levy was running towards her, a book in her arms which she presented to Lucy when she halted in front of her.

"Congratulations on the new apartment!" She said with a smile.

She took the book with one hand while writing with the other. -Thanks Levy. It's great to finally have my own place.-

"Cana told me you fell asleep in the bath."

Lucy blushed a little. -It's a luxury that I am loving. I'm used to smelling bad.-

"Not many bathhouses on the road?"

-Few and far between. I haven't had the opportunity to settle down properly before.-

"Our nomad's finally found a home?" Levy giggled.

She sighed. -Not a nomad by choice, but I decided this is where I'll stay.-

"Running from something?"

Lucy glanced at Levy walking beside her.

-You are very sharp, you know that?-

She just smiled sheepishly, waving her hands in an apologetic gesture. "Sorry, sorry, I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious."

-I'm sorry too. I don't mean to be so closed off. Just...Bad experiences.-

Lucy shook her head and continued writing.

-I'm trying to get away from my old home. And my father.-

She hesitated, her hand over the crumpled paper in her pocket.

Levy's eyes shone with something. It was so similar to Cana's look in the bathhouse, and Natsu's eyes whenever he looked at her.

Lucy slowly drew the piece of crumpled paper out of her pocket and unfurled it to give to Levy, who looked at it surprised.

"With this reward, they must really want you back. You must have had a good reason to leave."

* * *

Lucy pulled down her cloak to show Levy her neck.

On it sat a hideous scar. It looked old, but it was still lumpy, pink and raw.

And it was big. Very big.

Levy could feel her eyes widening.

-I Almost died from it.-

"Well, I suppose all the fairy tale princesses have a good reason to run away."

Levy tried to joke shakily.

Lucy chuckled.

She was still surprised Lucy showed her the wanted notice.

-Come on, I don't want to think about the past. I have a future to make. I need to shop around for somethings.-

Levy put a bright smile back on her face, trying to shove down her worries.

 _I can always think about them later._

* * *

"Master Makarov? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Certainly Levy. What did you want to talk about?"

"Lucy." Levy stated firmly.

"Hmmm. Come into the back room and bring Cana with you. She wanted to talk too."

* * *

Lucy hummed as she walked to the guild hall. She had completed her evening of shopping with Levy, visiting the Heart Cruitz retailer for some new cloths, managing to snag a discount rug and order a new bookcase.

 _Not bad for a day half spent asleep in the bath._

"...re aware none of this is to leave this room?"

"Yes Master." Lucy heard Cana and Levy respond.

It was coming through one of the guild's windows.

"When I was at that charity event for orphans a while back. Cana, you were with me that day remember?"

"Yeah, that dress itched. What about it?"

"Do you recall the muscular man with the slicked back hair and the bad suit?"

"Uh. he smelled too."

"That man was a representative from the Heartfilia Konzern."

Lucy felt her blood run cold.

"They were very...shall we say insistent on getting their Daughter back. They even tried to request her retrieval by any means necessary."

"They tried to offer Fairy Tail this kidnapping request?" Levy asked disbelievingly.

"Indeed they did."

"Tch. The balls on these rich assholes." Cana spat.

"I share the sentiment, if not the language- however it does present a few issues."

She heard the old man take a deep breath in.

"Firstly, she's being hunted. Five million Jewl for a simple kidnapping would be very tempting. Even to common dark guild thugs."

Cana snorted. "If it's the same Lucy we're talking about then simple is not the word I'd use. If she can fight three bandit camps with Natsu of all people, then stare down a nest of vulcans...hmph" she snorted before the sound of liquid sloshing inside a bottle. "She won't go down to some thugs."

"I assumed as much. The problem is if any major bounty hunters or dark guilds as a whole set their sights on her."

"I'm not worried." Levy spoke confidently.

"Oh yeah?" Cana slurred. "And why's that?"

"Natsu."

"Oh right." she hiccuped.

"I agree." Makarov sighed.

 _What the hell does that mean?_

He continued "However precautions must be taken. It may be best to convince her to go by a fake last name, and maybe find her an alias she can be known by."

"But that won't be the hard part." Levy's voice was blunt.

"Yes, keeping her safe will be the easy part. The hard part will be finding a way for the Konzern to stop pursuing her."

"Fake her death?" Cana suggested drunkenly.

"No, that risks exposing her, and they'll want to see the body too." Levy dismissed the idea.

"You are just a barrel of laughs today Blue." Cana giggled.

She heard Levy sigh. "We can't actively do anything without exposing that Lucy is here in Magnolia and is staying here."

"Mhm. Well, we will keep trying to formulate a solution in the meantime."

There was a rustle of cloth and Makarov grunted as if he was getting up.

"I shall attempt to find more information about the Konzern and why they want Lucy back so much. Cana, you have your orphan friends to do the same, and pay them well."

"Right." Cana droned.

"Levy, you are already friends with Lucy."

"She loves books like I do, how could we not?"

Lucy couldn't help but smile with the joy she heard in Levy's voice.

"She may need a friend to talk to. It doesn't matter if It's you, Natsu, or anyone else in the guild."

"Understood."

"Uh, time for me to get back to drinking.

"That implies that you stopped drinking Cana." Levy giggled.

"Remember you two. Lucy's surname does not leave this room."

Silence.

"All right. off you go you two."

"Master? What about Natsu?" Levy asked.

Makarov chuckled as the door squeaked open.

"I already talked with him."

Nothing was spoken as footsteps sounded in the room, followed by the door closing.

Lucy put her back to the wall and slid down it.

She tried to process what was happening.

 _Going out of their way to help me._

 _Why?_

 _Just because I helped Natsu?_

The determination and resolve in their voices as they talked.

She felt tears leak out of her eyes.

Lucy was happy to find people who accepted her despite what they had seen, but she was afraid.

It was like what happened to Salt all over again.

Her insides boiled with all her emotions, trying to sort them out.

She flipped up her hood and hunched under the cloak as she stood and started running.

* * *

Lucy hummed as she thought, sitting cross legged on the Ledge on top of the Magnolia clocktower.

The last bell of the day had already chimed, and now Lucy was alone.

Watching the sunset and listening to the sounds of the people below.

She always liked humming as if she was singing. It always seemed to relax her.

She regretted never taking proper singing lessons when she was younger.

Her voice rang out purely and reverberated around the bell as she sang her favorite tune, a piano piece she would hear around the Heartfilia manor when things were better.

Her voice ran through the intricate scale, rising and falling.

Lucy finished the last of the song, letting the final note fade into silence.

Tears slowly rolled from her eyes, and her nose was running, causing her to sniff.

"Something on your mind?" A gentle voice, wizened but young echoed around the bell.

She turned to see a cloaked man sitting on another ledge behind her comfortably. As if he had been there for a while.

He was even more bundled up than she was.

His cloak was ragged and very travel worn, his face completely covered except for his eyes.

A presence surrounded the man. Like the air was heavy around him.

Lucy just nodded.

His eyes just met hers.

They seemed to scour her, seeking truth or reason in every inch of her.

"Everyone has their burden to bare." He uttered quietly, looking away.

Lucy just got out her pen.

-I'm scared.-

He looked her over again.

She could see the question. The one everyone asks.

Lucy just pulled down the neck of her cloak to show her scar.

-My past is hunting me. I want to make my stand, but last time I tried to...my...friend….-

Her hand was shaking too badly to continue.

Patience was etched into his very being. If he hadn't been breathing she would have mistaken him for a statue.

She breathed deeply and evenly before she continued.

-He died. I have made friends here now, and I don't want them to end up like my old friend.-

He just simply raised his hand and pointed to her own.

"Your new friends will not be so easy to take down. Fairy Tail is not a guild of quitters. In anything."

Lucy raised her hand to look at the guild mark on the back of it.

When she looked back up he was gone.

"My name is Mystogen. Wizard of Fairy Tail." His voice echoed on the breeze.

She could only stare at where he had been sitting in shock.

 _Fairy Tail has someone like him in their ranks?_

"Hey Luce."

"We found you!"

Natsu must had climbed up the outside of the clock tower.

He pulled himself up and over the edge to sit beside her, happy swooping around the bell.

Lucy made a disbelieving noise as she watched him.

-Are all fairy tail wizards an unhealthy mix of strong and crazy?-

"You tell me, you're a member now." Natsu replied with a shit eating grin.

She just showed him a deadpan expression as he and Happy chuckled evilly.

"What's that small?" He turned his head, sniffing. "Smells like someone else was up here."

-Yeah. He said his name was Mystogen.-

"Mystogen? He was here?" Happy sounded shocked. "He's one of Fairy Tail's S-class wizards. They say no one's seen his face except for Master Makarov."

"As strong as Erza and Laxus. Gramps send him to get me after I went on a rampage once." Natsu winced as if recalling something painful. "He took me down faster than Gildarts did. Didn't even have a bruise when I changed back. Still hurt though."

"Yeah, not like when Gildarts had to come get you. You looked like a panda when you were human again.." Happy sneered.

"Yeah, that one really hurt."

Lucy smiled, but it faded quickly with what was on her mind.

-Natsu?-

"Yeah?"

-I wanted to show you something.-

* * *

Lucy drew a Lacrama out from her cloak.

It was a deep blue colour and swirled with images .

Natsu just stared at it.

"That's it? A Lacrama?" He asked puzzled.

She looked annoyed. -Not the Lacrama itself you dummy. It's what's inside it. It's a memory Lacrama.-

He still didn't quite get it.

It must have shown on his face, because she just snatched his hand and dropped the crystalline sphere into it.

The moment it touched his hand his mind went blank and images started playing.

He saw a grizzled man with white hair laughing jokingly at him as he held a cooking knife wonkily.

"Come on lass, like I showed you."

 _Lass?_

Natsu noticed the blond hair at the sides of his vision.

 _Oh! I'm in Lucy's memory, so right now, I am her! This feels weird._

He felt himself pout as she readjusted her fingers.

Also a bit freaky having his body move on it's own.

The image shifted to her walking beside him along the boardwalk of a run down looking harbor.

They were both eating a skewer of grilled seafood, and arguing about what was what.

"That was Calm for sure!"

-Nope, mollusk. Too small to be a clam.-

"Gah fine, next one." He slurped up the next item on his skewer.

-Swordfish?-

"Swordfish."

Natsu smiled with elation as she got it right.

"Hah, a thousand jewel you won't guess this un." He chuckled wickedly.

She remembered it, it was on the tip of her tongue...pen.

Natsu's eyes widened as Lucy's hand wrote

-Hah! Skate!-

Natsu/Lucy laughed as the man cursed.

-You didn't think I'd remember!-

"Aite then missy, what is skate's fish then hmm?"

-Stingray-

"Shit, you do remember."

The Image flickered again.

Lucy opening and giving presents with the white haired man.

Her undiluted joy at getting a black bandanna just like his, as well as a book on the constellations.

Her glee when he wore the ridiculously colorful cloths and enormous hat to match that she got him.

Them both laughing themselves silly after he did a goofy dance, tripping over his own feet.

Memory after memory played, Natsu reliving the happy memories of this man.

Then finally, there was one last memory.

A crowd of people watching the gallows in silence as the condemned man spoke.

Lucy/Natsu could barely see his white hair from where she was standing, but she heard every word he spoke.

"My last words? If yer hopin for somen' all philosophical and….poetic; Ya came to the wrong execution. I'm here cus I have to be."

He Laughed and continued.

"To my crew, It's been one hell of a ride. Thank you for everything. To my little girl-"

He stopped as his voice cracked, his tears spilling down his face.

Smiling all the while.

"You were my light in the dark, my guide to a new path. So keep shining. My Little Star."

Natsu/Lucy's stomach had no bottom. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was sobbing uncontrollably.

Her heart felt like it was wrenched out of her chest.

She shook as the axe man raised his weapon.

Darkness of closed eyes.

She couldn't watch.

Her body flinched as she heard a thud and a muffled thump.

Her knees gave out.

She fell to the ground and wailed her grief.

It was drowned out by the cheers of the ignorant onlookers, who only saw the death of some pirate.

Natsu felt Lucy's body fade away from around him.

The memories ending.

* * *

Natsu was having trouble processing all that he saw, all that he felt.

-Natsu.-

He smelled her fear, the light but bitter taste of insecurities.

Every muscle in her body showed her confusion and conflict.

-I'm Scared. I cared about him so much.-

"Yeah, I saw."

-He sacrificed himself for me. He died _because_ of me. I don't want that happening to you. Or Levy, or Cana.-

"Heh, It's fine by us. we don't give up on our friends. Our comrades, our guildmates. We're family."

He knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"We do anything for our family."

Lucy felt tears flow down her cheeks again.

Natsu shifted so he was fully hugging her.

She hugged him back as he whispered. "Let's go back to the guild hall. Your new family is waiting."

The doubts still lingered in Lucy's mind, but Natsu's comfort had given her the courage to keep moving. That was all she needed to do.

-Ok. Thanks Natsu.-

"Jeze what would you do without my shoulder to cry on?" He asked sarcastically.

-I'd grab your shoulder and cry on it anyways.-

Lucy gave a small smile as she wiped away her tears.

* * *

Lucy had to admit, she was enjoying herself.

The guildhall was still rowdy, Cana was still drinking, Natsu and Grey were butting heads, Elfman was screaming about manliness, Loke had a girl in his arms.

She realized that it did look like a family.

The siblings who were very alike butting heads, the problem children, the big sister, the over stressed parent.

Lucy had only seen other examples of other's families before, but now to be in one of her own...

It made her feel fuzzy inside.

She smiled as Levy came up to her and started gushing about the Detective Lance issue she had given her.

Cana had herself draped over Grey to prevent him fighting with Natsu, drunkenly singing about his need of cloths.

Natsu himself had lost interest and was now arm wrestling with Elfman.

Levy looked at Lucy inquisitively as she giggled.

-It's already starting to feel like home.-

The blue haired girl Hugged her with bright eyes.

As their hug broke a man came rushing in.

"Urgent Job request! Urgent Job request!"

The messenger rushed straight for Master Makarov and handed him the job request formally before he fell to his knees, exhausted.

Mirajane rushed out from behind the bar to drag him to a stool and push a mug into his hands.

The guild all gathered around the Master, waiting for his assessment.

Master made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl.

"A Man matching the description of Bora of the Prominence has been seen kidnapping a ship load of young women at Hargeon. He was using the alias of Salamander, claiming he was a fairy tail Wizard."

"That asshole! Lemme at him! I'll kill him for using my name to disgrace our family!" Natsu practically screamed.

Several others showed their anger in growls or filthy looks.

"Their ship is stopping by thunder cove on the way to Bosco. We have been asked to intercept this ship, and save the passengers."

 _Thunder cove?_

-I'll take the job. Thunder cove is my home field advantage.-

Master looked her over for a long moment.

"are you sure?" he asked steadily.

"Hell yeah! Me and Lucy can take on anything!"

Lucy felt a smile tug at her lips as she penned -Absolutely.-

"Hm. Very well. You need to pick another member to go along with you though."

-Elfman!- She wrote, turning to him.

"Yes!?"

-Are you a real man?-

"Yeah I am!"

-Do real men treat women like trash? or cattle to be transported?-

"Hell no!

-Are you man enough to run for seven hours to thunder cove?-

"Hell yeah!"

-And why are we going to beat respect for Fairy Tail into every insolent bone in his body?-

"BECAUSE WE ARE REAL MEN!" Elfman roared.

"YEAH!" Natsu cried behind him.

"The mission and Team have been approved!" Master boomed from his perch on the bar.

-Team! Move out!-

Lucy started jogging out the door, both Natsu and Elfman following behind her, chanting "Real men! Real men! Real men!"

* * *

A/N: I kept you waiting...


	12. Distant Thunder

-Hurry Up boys!-

Lucy scrawled with one hand as she used the other to help her vault over a tree which had fallen over the faded dirt path.

"Reeeeeal meeeeeen!" Elfman gasped out.

"What even is this path Lucy? And how do you know about it?" Natsu asked as he jogged leisurely, still breathing heavily.

-Smuggler's route. You don't hang around with former pirates for years without picking up a few things.-

Natsu had fallen behind her so he could read her scrawl properly.

"What...she….say?" Elfman panted.

"Smuggler's route?"

Lucy nodded.

She noticed some peculiar markings on a tree, paired with an old rotten rope tied around it.

-Hold up-

"What is it?" Natsu stopped behind her.

-Rest Stop. We are catching our breath and eating something.-

Elfman immediately collapsed onto his back, breathing heavily.

"How did you get food? We left the guildhall almost immediately." Nastu asked confused.

Lucy studied the rope closely.

Several strands of Ivy were tangled inside the rope.

 _Now, one of these strands will lead to a trapdoor which has food and supplies in it. The other ones are deadly traps. Fun for the whole family._

"Lucy…"

-Shh. Need to concentrate.-

 _There!_ A slightly different coloured strand that blended seamlessly into a vine.

She gripped the vine and tugged, the grass holding firm to the trapdoor.

-Natsu! Pull this.-

"Ok, but you better not fart or nothin." He tugged as she ignored him and cut away the tangle of grass and roots with her knife.

The grass topped wood creaked and slammed into the ground, revealing a ladder leading down into darkness.

Lucy deftly climbed down the ladder, summoning starlight into her hand to illuminate the small hovel.

Wooden crates with ceramic pots filled a lot of the room, while a small table was at the center of it all.

Hollows were cut into the earthen wall and reinforced with wood planks, serving as sleeping bunks.

She touched the small Lacrama lantern with her starlight, making it glow and illuminate the room.

-Come on down. Bring Elfman- Lucy wrote to Natsu, who was standing at the top of the ladder.

"You're full of surprises, ya know that?."

Lucy just smiled sweetly back at him as she sat down on one of the chairs.

She got to work sorting through and opening a few of the pots and jars, laying out a spread for her hungry friends.

Natsu jumped down into the hole, landing smoothly.

Elfman on the other hand carefully took the ladder down.

-Water in these jars, crackers, fruit preserves, honey ham, pickled chillies-

She paused to set that particular jar in front of Natsu's place as they sat down.

-Salt Cod (it's fish by the way), and some peanut butter.-

"Awesome Lucy! Did you put all this here?"

-No, I just knew where to find it.- Lucy winked at them. -Believe me, there is a LOT of stuff stashed away in the world. You just need to know where to look for it.-

Natsu was watching her write, casually popping chillies into his mouth like a snack.

 _Why does that not surprise me?_

-So anyways. What do you know about this guy? Bora?-

Elfman had finally had his breath back. "He was a member of the 'Titan's Nose' Guild, but he was kicked out. He's wanted by the magic council."

-Let's be sure to gift wrap him then.-

"Manly." Elfman affirmed.

-What does he look like?-

"I'm not sure myself." Elfman grimaced.

"I've seen him. He's a jerkbag. Blue hair, a tattoo on the side of his forehead..."

Natsu put down the jar of chilies and raced up the ladder. "Be right back! gotta pee!"

"Man, that guy."

-Subtlety is not his strong suit.-

Elfman observed Lucy for a moment.

"What's it like writing instead of speaking?"

-I guess lack of subtlety is a guild wide thing huh?-

He chuckled. "Sorry, I'm curious."

-Not being able to use tones or sarcasm is a pain.-

"I'll bet it is." Elfman threw back sarcastically.

-I can almost taste the irony.- Lucy wrote with her deadpan expression.

-Writing and moving at the same time is another thing. However, I do get to use brackets in conversation (Not that I get so use them often) and _different writing styles when I want to be more fancy._ **Or be a bit loud!** -

"Have you thought about telepathy?"

-No one to teach me, and it would drain my magic and focus.-

"We have A guy at Fairy Tail who is Manley Telepathic. He could help if you want."

-I could try that.-

They continued to eat in silence, until Natsu tumbled down the ladder.

And even that didn't last long because his face was soon stuffed with food.

* * *

 _Great Job Natsu._

Lucy grumbled to herself as she continued.

 _Fall down a cliff with Elfman. And I'm going to have to wait for them._

She sighed as she crossed her arms, leaning against a tree.

In front of her was the crossroads, the meet of the main road to thunder cove, the mountain path and the bandit trail.

"Who the hell are you?"

Lucy looked up to see a big man, spiky gold hair, and a scar down the side of his face.

-Waiting for my friends.-

She wrote simply.

 _If he's going to look down on and sneer at me I'm not going to give him shit._

"Tch." He spat and continued on the road to thunder cove.

Nice to meet you too asshole.

Lucy glared at his retreating back.

She decided to kill some time. She got out her diary.

* * *

"Reeeeal meeeeeeeen."

"Reeeeeeeeeeal meeeeeeeeeen."

Lucy wanted to slap them both as they droned on.

 _Well, at least we are here._

She peered over the rise of the hill and saw the small city.

Dingy and broken down. That about summed it up. Lucy thought to herself.

Run down shacks populated the hills and cliffside.

The docks, boats and warehouses were the most well kept things in the entire shithole.

Lucy could smell it from here. That familiar nostalgia inducing smell of new fish, old fish and human excrement.

 _I can't believe this used to smell like home._

It sort of did smell like home though. Her nostalgia as starting the get the better of her as a tear threatened to escape her eyes.

She continued walking to they wouldn't see her face.

A strong arm draped over her shoulders, Natsu drawing his face uncomfortably close to hers.

"You can't fool me. What's up?"

Lucy gave him a small smile. She didn't fully understand how he could know so well, but she liked that he was concerned enough to ask.

-This used to smell like home. It still does, sort of, but now It just smells of shit.-

He said nothing, just gave her a gentle squeeze before letting her go.

"This place looks terrible." Elfman stated as he stared at the port below.

"So Luce, what's our plan of attack?"

-Get more information. Our scout should have already gotten a lot.-

Lucy opened her hand and let out a small burst of light.

A blue dot rose above the town and sped towards them.

"Hey Happy! how'd it go?" Natsu exclaimed.

"You had better have some good fish for me, that place is nasty."

-Right here Happy.- Lucy raised a jar she had saved and popped the lid off for him.

"This looks more like a soup." Happy accused.

-Try it before you deny it.- Lucy wrote with a smirk.

"Ok, fine then. This place is filled with musclebound ruffians. Everyone has knifes everywhere."

-I know that already. Anything on Bora or new ships that have come in?- she penned as Happy had taken in a mouthful of the fish mix.

"Wew Lushy, dish ish prey good." Happy waffled before swallowing his food.

-Bora?- Lucy raised her brows.

"He has his 'merchandise' stored in warehouses in the city."

-Half this frekin town is warehouses!-

"Hey, I got the warehouse numbers, but that's not the problem. We beat him here, but he'll be using a hidden dock and the underground tunnels. He's going to load up the ship and go."

-Anything else? How many warehouses?-

"Um, yeah that's the thing. There are two main warehouses, and twelve smaller ones."

"What?"

"So not Manly."

Lucy stayed silent. _The larger pens would probably be for the normal girls, the smaller ones for more 'valuable' ones, for ransom or virgin beauties._

 _There are only three of us, if we assault the larger ones, the smaller ones would move. same if we attack the small pens, the large ones and all the rest of them would move._

 _But there is a place they'll be all together._

 _The ship._

 _But that'll mean Natsu will be useless._

 _We can't stage a strong assault without him._

 _So, subtle way in it is._

-I have a plan.-

* * *

Natsu didn't like this plan. Not one stinkin bit.

But Lucy had asked him. He just couldn't refuse.

He growled impatiently.

 _I've waited enough._

He rounded the corner and rushed the two guards in front of a locked door in the rows of store houses.

"Hey you! Don't you...phumph!"

Natsu swung his fist angrily at the guards.

They flew away and landed flat on the ground with a smack.

His fist had a few scales sprouting out of it.

 _No, need to be calm. I need to trust in Lucy. If she thinks she can do it, then she can._

Natsu sighed and breathed out.

The tiny scales started to shrink and fall off.

 _Now, I got some Ladies to save._

He grabbed the door handle and focused his heat on it.

it gleamed an evil red, then glowed a cherry red, then a bright orange.

The handle was starting to drip molten metal.

As the handle was liquefying he lowered his mouth to the handle and started slurping.

 _Surprising, it's nice and hot. Tastes ok too._

He grinned. There was a good meal in his mouth

The fire moved from his mouth and started flowing down his gullet.

Metal clanged as he spat the lump to the ground.

He kicked the door and it slammed open.

"Who the hell are you?"

A guard stood in the middle of the small room, four girls in each corner of the room.

"Oh, I'm here to rescue these girls."

 _He's going to try sucker punch me. There's no way he's not._

"Really? What are you their Prince Charming?" He sneered.

"Me? Pfft. I'm no Prince. I am…."

He charged.

 _Called it!_

"I AM THE FUCKING DRAGON!" Natsu roared as he he ducked his head and smashed his blazing fist into the kidnapper's face.

The man smashed into the back wall and his unconscious body flopped to the floor.

Natsu grinned as he got to work freeing the girls from their bonds.

"Since when is the handsome prince the hero of the story?" He bemoaned as he moved on to the next women's bindings.

"Dragons may be greedy, but we protect beautiful things for the sake of their beauty with no ulterior motive."

The second woman was free, two to go.

"Alright girls, who's ready to leave?"

"What about the others? There are a lot of others beside us!" The third girl asked as she stood up.

Natsu grinned at the raven haired girl.

"Don't worry, this is only phase one. A nice loud, distracting rescue mission." He burned the last girl's bindings away.

"There will be ten more warehouses once me and one of my partners finish our assault. By then the bastards will have heard someone is attacking them. They'll clear out in a hurry."

Natsu held out his hand flat, palm up. A small flame flickered in his palm.

"They'll try and load up their ship and set sail as soon as possible. We track em to their ship, and then…"

He closed his fist, snuffing out the flames.

"We'll have em. Come on. I need to be at another warehouse before they move. then I can put you in a safe place."

The women looked hesitant as they stood in the doorway.

"Mister, who are you?"

"Me?" Natsu turned so they could see his guildmark and set his fist on fire. "I'm Natsu Dragneel. The real Salamander of Fairy Tail."

The girls looked shocked.

He growled as he met their eyes.

"And he's going to pay for using my name, and for dragging Fairy Tail's name through the mud."

One of them stepped forwards. "How do you know you'll be able to track them? What if they get away?"

Natsu snorted. "Can't happen. This is the part of the plan I don't like."

* * *

Lucy sat among a crowd of girls, wearing magical bindings that she had already nullified.

The guard hadn't noticed her slip in.

When her neighbours had stared at her, she just winked at them.

She looked right at home here, her ragged clothing she had stolen from a washing line along the way.

Her cloak was rolled up and disguised as a bedroll like the other girls had.

All her keys except Aquarius' were with Natsu for safe keeping.

She winced slightly as she adjusted herself. Just in case she had stuck The water bearer's key in an uncomfortable spot.

Lucy had to remember to apologize later.

She doubted Aquarius would like her key there.

 _At least I'll be able to summon her in a hurry._

There definitely was enough water up there.

 _And just when I'd cleaned it too._

A man burst through the warehouse door and yelled.

"Get up! we're moving! Now!"

* * *

 **Ermagherd, finally. I got enough stuff to post. I has so many ideas, so little time.  
I should probably do Author notes more often, but I don't generally have much to say.  
If any o' yall Fairy Tailers seen RWBY, I felt I needed to do a little crossover there-a 4 parter. coming soon...in 321 it's up. well, first part anyways. The RWBY gals need a hug after volume 3. or fifty.  
In regards to silent stars- Need to finish bora & thunder cove, everlou, then on to plot teritory. Oooohhhhh.  
Thank you to all the reviews I have recieved. Encouragement and constructive feedback is always welcome.  
Anywho. Got more procrastinating to do. Later!  
**


	13. Thundercry

_Natsu, hurry up! I don't want to have to fight all these guys on my own_.

Lucy and a small horde of kidnapped girls were standing on the hidden dock.

The line to board was slow, only one gangplank for people to walk shakily across.

It was a damp, musty smelling cave.

Small holes in the ceiling let in streams of light that fed the moss and vines littered around the cavern.

She counted about twenty guards.

And Bora.

Lucy saw the man responsible for the kidnappings.

He was a handsome person, stunning even.

She recognised the feeling burning in her chest.

 _This is the exact feeling I felt the first time I visited Hargeon, just before I met Natsu._ Lucy realised.

The first time she encountered him and the strange feeling he gave, she had Immediately turned around and walked away.

She had fallen for a charm spell once before.

 _I will not fall for it again. But this time I can't just hide from it. I need to endure it now._

"We already have the Hargeon girls asleep in the ship, and once the Thunder girls are loaded…" Bora gave an arrogant smirk. "We'll put them asleep too and take off. Bosco and a ton of profits await."

"This is definitely an excellent pick Mister Salamander."The bald man next to him nodded, saying the name mockingly.

Lucy felt a stir of bile and rage in her guts.

 _That's Natsu's name you shit stain_.

She fumed in silence as she listened and waited for her opportunity.

"Sir!" a man ran up, looking like he had been run through a furnace.

He was bleeding as he staggered up to bora.

"What is it?"

"The reinforcements you called for are under attack."

"Is it the same people who attacked our warehouses?" He asked, a slight warble of worry in his voice.

"Looks like it." The man leaned down as he panted.

"Everything proceeding well?" The bald man asked from behind the kidnapper.

Bora growled. "Some lowlifes attacked some of our smaller warehouses and took the merchandise. That is why we are proceeding ahead of schedule, and why I ordered reinforcements. Our intruders will be Annihilated, or be slowed down enough for us to make our getaway."

"Splendid."

Lucy looked down as she smiled. she looked over the burn marks on the messenger again.

 _Natsu._

 _But that does mean I'll be alone here to take out twenty thugs. Not to mention Bora or the bald guy. Both are mages from the look of it._

Lucy bit her lip as she thought.

 _What should I do?_

Boom.

Explosion.

Pebbles and shards of rock rained.

The sound echoed around the cave.

The force reverberated through the rock and wood.

Thunder arced around the new entrance as a shadow stood there.

He stepped out into the light.

Lucy blinked in recognition.

That guy who passed by on the highway. The jackass.

Lightning mage, makes sense. Lucy thought as she looked him over.

The scar on the side of his face looked like a lightning bolt.

His spiky hair was the colour of his lightning, and standing on end because of it.

"Hi there. I think you have something that belongs to me."

His strong arrogant growl echoed through the cavern, sounding like thunder.

The ruffians serving as guards regained their senses.

Three men charged.

Lightning flickered.

Three men fell.

"What the hell? Who are you?" Bora yelled at him as he charged with the other thugs, a dark flame in his hand.

"PISSED OFF!" The blond man roared. " **THUNDERCRY!** "

Bolts of lightning swirled around him and broke, sending thick ropes streaming in every direction.

He just stood in the middle of it, glowing a brilliant blinding yellow.

Lucy pulled out aquarius' key and stuffed it in her pocket, put on her cloak, shed her bindings, and started summoning stars.

Bora and three of his thugs were still standing after the blond man's attacks

Lucy drew out six stars in front of her. _**SIX STAR STREAM!**_

She focused on the guards interspersed among the women they were guarding.

The stars flowed around the cavern like a snake, the stars splitting off one by one to smash into the bandit's faces.

Bora had taken notice of her and shot a murky purple fire at her.

Lucy ducked under it, but the flames shifted.

 _It'll hit me._ _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD!**_

She brought a star to her chest and settled in the center, glowing it's radiant barrier.

She still dive rolled away from the attack.

It grazed her as she leapt past it, and it shredded her cloak to pieces.

Lucy cried in dismay and anger as her as her old faithful was torn.

She slowly got up to face Bora, murder in her eyes.

-You will pay for that.- She scrawled angrily.

* * *

Natsu was getting worried.

Even as he smashed through thug after thug, he felt the need to go faster.

Get to Lucy faster.

But he needed to take out these guys first.

Lucy could handle a few guards, not fifty of them.

He kept smashing, keeping her scent in his nose.

Making every effort not to go into a blind rage and kill them all instantaneously.

* * *

Laxus stared at the star girl as her cloak got ripped to shreds.

She looked like she could have been a dancing bunny at a seedy lounge or bar somewhere.

Well, she would have if she wasn't glaring down that runt of a fire wizard.

Or the horrible scars that were revealed when her cloak and clothing got torn.

Or the collection of stars glowing as they hovered behind her.

The entire effect created an aura around her. It was almost alluring.

He didn't even have to look at her twice.

She was strong.

 _She may not be much stronger magically than any of the weakling squad like Natsu, Grey or Elfman, but that fire in her eyes..._

He grinned as his blood boiled.

 _She may be as strong of will as Titania is. Maybe I can get her to join the thunder Legion._

He watched as some of the guards that hadn't been taken out by her stars charge at her.

Two of the stars behind her flew to her hands, and she grabbed them, forming fists.

She smacked down the two that tried to swing short cutlassas at her.

A fallen cutlass got swept up into her hands and blurred towards her next target.

She swiped through some enemies, knocking some out with the pommel or the back of the blade.

She lost the blade when she shoved it through one bandit's chest.

 _She's brutal._ He thought as the girl went back to fighting with her star magic.

Laxus laughed as he cracked his knuckles and launched into the fray himself.

 _May as well get my hands dirty._

* * *

Lucy thrust the blunt tipped cutlass she held straight through a guard's chest.

She had recognised him from when she and the other girls had been moved.

He had slapped one of the girls to the ground for resisting when he groped her.

 _Fair's fair, don't you think?_

She tried to jerk the cutlass free, but it was stuck.

Other guards were approaching.

Lucy released the crude blade and started directing her stars instead.

She replaced her flickering star shield with a new one.

Her fists glowed as she beat down all her attackers in a single flurry of blows.

Booming Thunder rang out as the blond man pinballed around the cavern, glowing with lightning.

He had a savage smile on his face as man after man fell in a blaze of Electricity.

With a final crashing boom, the man practically appeared in front of her.

"Hi there. You're strong." He wore a half grin, half smirk.

It wasn't a normal smile.

Natsu on the other hand was rather simple to gauge.

He usually only had one emotion or characteristic going at once. Maybe two.

But this guy.

Arrogance. Cockiness. Ruthlessness. Cunning. Excitement. Contempt.

And he was strong.

 _A smarter, stronger, asshole version of Natsu. With Lightning._

 _Fantastic._

Lucy cocked her head and wrote -So are you. So what?-

He raised an eyebrow at her.

 _That question again. They don't even have to ask it._ She huffed in her head.

She lifted her head and pointed to the scar on her neck.

"Well, I was just here to kick some ass and get my favorite waitress back. But since you're here I have a proposition for you."

She tilted her head. -Oh?-

"I want you to join my guild. And join my team."

-That may be difficult. I don't even know your name or your guild.-

"My apologies." He chuckled arrogantly. "My name is Laxus Dreyer, and I am the strongest member of the Fairy Tail guild."

No way. This jerk? Hmph. I bet Natsu could kick his ass if he went Full dragon.

"So what do you say huh?"

 _I could jerk him around a bit more.._.

"Lucy!"

She turned to see Natsu running towards her as fast as he could, his footsteps echoing through the cave.

Lucy turned back to Laxus, raising the hand with the guild mark on it. Clenching it into a fist as she showed him.

-Sorry. I already have a partner.-

She jerked her head at Natsu as she finished writing. -Him-

"What the hell? The weakling?" Laxus almost sounded disgusted.

Lucy slapped him in the face. As hard as she could.

As Natsu reached her, they both stared at her in shock.

-Are you done rescuing your one person thunderboy? We still have the other thousand to go.-

She moved closer and wrote smaller, right in front of his face.

-So either help us or ship out.-

The Blond man met her eyes.

She glared back as menacingly as she could.

"Tch. Fine." Laxus flew onto the ship in a flash of lightning, then flashed out again holding a slender girl in his arms.

"You'll regret pairing up with the weakling." He had half turned to sneer before bolting out the doorway.

Lucy was in the middle of writing a response, but he was gone.

-Showing restraint is not weakness.-

Elfman caught up to Natsu and collapsed next to him, panting as a thread of blood ran down his face.

Natsu just said nothing as he stared at her words.

"What was Laxus doing here?" Natsu asked.

-Rescuing his favorite waitress.- Lucy smirked.

"Really?" Elfman asked disbelieving as he gasped.

-Anyways. We need to get these girls home, lock up Bora and the Bald guy, exchange high fives, get paid, and go eat.-

"Sounds like a plan." Natsu cried, getting back to his jubilant self.

Natsu suddenly sniffed the air and spun around. "Oi! Baldie!"

The man had picked himself off the ground.

"Change of plans kids!" He cried as he snatched up one of the girls for a human shield, producing a round black ball from his pocket.

"Let her go!" Natsu growled at him.

"Tina!" One of the girls behind him cried.

"Sis!"

"Have fun kids!" He tossed some seeds at Tina's feet and they immediately sprouted hard looking brown vines that constricted her feet. He shoved the black ball into the vines as they were growing and poked it.

Then he started running as a holographic 10 appeared over the device.

Natsu send a giant fireball at him, but he dived into the water.

9

The sea churned and the man reappeared, riding a small boat the size of a surfboard.

Lucy sent star arrows into the vines at Tina's feet.

8

"Beast arm! Blade Beast!" Elfman roared as his arm glowed.

The smoke cleared from lucy's star arrows, showing a small graze on the vines.

The small boat was already speeding out to sea.

7

She saw Natsu run to the edge of the pier and take a breath for a massive roar.

Elfman's right arm was covered in blades, the edge of his palm, each of his fingers, the edge of his arm.

He started Sawing franticly, his fingers gripping the vine.

 _What can I do?_

6

Natsu's roar boomed out, bright light and a billow of heat filled the cavern.

The sea boiled and steamed as the intense beam of fire crashed towards the slaver and his ship.

 _I don't sense much magic from the bomb, meaning it's a physical blast and I can't use my star shield to protect us._

5

Elfman rumbled as he drew back his arm and delivered a swift karate chop to the impossibly strong wood.

Natsu's fire crashed into the ship, burning and charring it. It's occupant was forced to jump overboard.

4

Elfman kept chopping for all he was worth.

The girl caught in the vines was sobbing in terror.

3

Elfman planted a foot on Lucy's chest and kicked her, propelling her into Natsu who was walking back, his hand flaming.

They collapsed in a heap, away from the device.

Lucy cried out as Natsu yelled "ELFMAN!"

 _It may not be much, but please let it be enough!_ _ **SINGLE STAR SHIELD**_ _!_

2

Elfman roared, an animal scream of pure rage and frustration as he swung his hand one last time.

His fist impacted the vine.

There was a barely audible crack.

1

Elfman Shouted his victory, grabbed the girl with his normal arm, tugged her out of the vines, cradled her against his chest and dived away from the device.

Lucy's Stars settled on the two just as the timer flashed…

0

Where Elfman and Tina had been a second ago was vaporised.

The explosion boomed out, sending shrapnel everywhere.

Elfman was sent flying away, the bundle of terrified girl in his arms shrieking her fear.

His back slammed against the cave wall, and Elfman gasped as splotches of red appeared on his body.

His arms went limp around Tina's body.

"Elfman!" Natsu rushed to his bloody and battered form.

Lucy's ears still rang from the explosion as she struggled to pick herself up to help Elfman.

She lost her sense of balance and imediatly fell flat on her face.

 _Shit, I need up._ _ **FOUR STAR REMEDY**_ _!_

The stars whizzed around her head, glowing a harsh light that cleared her head and stopped her ears ringing.

Lucy slowly got up as she directed the stars over to Elfman and shone on him too.

She pushed Natsu out of the way while writing. -Go find a Doctor or a Nurse. Maybe there's one among these girls.-

He did as she bid, yelling for help.

Lucy ignored it as she prised the girl off Elfman and started checking his wounds.

Large splinter, piece of metal, gash on forehead…

She felt around his head with her fingers and the magic in her stars.

 _...Concussion maybe?_

She got to work picking out all the shrapnel she could with her bare hands until Natsu dragged two of the girls over.

One of them got to work immediately, flicking her hair out of her face and examining him properly.

-I think he has a concussion.- Lucy wrote.

The Doctor glanced at what she wrote.

"MY name is Alanna, I'm a local doctor here in Thunder cove. We can take him to my clinic. What are the effects of your magic? I need to know so nothing conflicts with our medicine and spells."

-It cures most magical inflictions, kills infections, stops minor bleeding.-

"What are you doing? He took an explosion to the face! Are you fixing him?" Natsu demanded to know.

The doctor just snapped back "I am making sure we can move him, and that we can keep him alive!"

"So? Can he?"

"Yes, carefully! Kel! Snap out of it and help me get him up!"

The other girl shook her head and started helping, positioning Elfman for transport.

Lucy put a hand on Natsu's shoulder as he tried to help.

-Natsu, I need you to stay here. Wake up the Hargeon Girls, then let them know they are safe, and we are seeing to Elfman before we go take the ship back.-

"But Lucy…"

She put a finger over his lips.

-Natsu, someone needs to stay here to help the girls, we can't leave them alone. And besides, I'm the one who lead the mission, I'm the one who brought Elfman along. He's my responsibility.-

 _And I could never look Mirajane in the eye again if I got Elfman killed._

-I trust you to take care of a thousand people, trust me to take care of this one.-

He looked reluctant, but he gave in.

"Ok. Good Luck Luce."

-You too Natsu.-

Lucy rushed over to Elfman's side to help the Doctor and Nurse lift up the Hulking mass of Man.

* * *

The girl groaned in Laxus' arms as he walked through the outskirts of town.

He was going to use his Lightning to travel once he was outside the city completely.

"Well...look who decided to wake up."

Aysha's eyes fluttered open

"Mister Dreyer?" She asked groggily. "Where am I?"

"Taking you home."

Her eyes flew open as she gasped.

"That's right! I was on the boat, and there was the handsome guy, and then pirates put us to sleep. What about the others?"

"Calm down before you talk my ears off girl." Laxus snorted. "Some members of my guild are saving them."

A light shone behind him, casting a shadow in front of him.

"Oh wow." She breathed as she looked behind.

Laxus turned back.

An enormous gout of flames roared out from one of the cliffs near the sea.

The water was forced back by the power of the blast.

Steam billowed as the flames made contact with a tiny speck in the water and exploded.

 _I can feel the heat from here…._

"Is this Natsu? What the hell? That weakling could do this?"

"That was your guildmates?"

Laxus growled.

 _How the hell did that weakling get so strong? Was it that girl? So then how did she do it?_

"No wonder you weren't worried."

He turned back and kept walking out of the city.

"It's nice to know you actually care." Aysha rested her head against his chest as he walked.

Laxus just said nothing as his lightning surrounded them both and he boomed down the trail.


	14. Vacation, but not

Lucy waited restlessly outside Elfman's room in the dimly lit Lioness Clinic.

She had to admit, for thunder cove, this place was very clean.

The doctor, Alanna, walked out of his room.

-How is he?- She scrawled.

"He's fine. Please go convince him not to move. He'll damage himself if he moved right now. He'll be good tomorrow provided he doesn't fight or do any strenuous activity."

Her shoulders slumped in relief.

-Is he awake?-

"Him and that girl he saved are talking. Maybe give em a moment."

Alanna yawned and stretched as she walked away, looking haggared.

Lucy being ever curious, stood outside the door and listened.

"...because of me."

"Don't worry, doc says I'll be out tomorrow." She heard Elfman's confident baritone.

"For what it's worth, thank you for saving me."

"I wouldn't be a real man if I couldn't save one girl now would I? Now go find your sister."

She heard a sniff before a quiet. "Thank you."

The door opened, and the girl named Tina stepped out.

Lucy nodded to her as she slipped into Elfman's room and closed the door.

* * *

"Oh, Lucy." Elfman noticed as the door closed.

-I'm glad you are ok.- She wrote.

"Heh, not as glad as I am."

-But I am not happy with you. You were reckless and careless.-

Elfman blinked.

What did she mean by that?

"What was I supposed to do? Leave her?"

-Yes.-

What? His anger flared.

"We are fairy Tail wizards. We don't back down. If we aren't man enough to do it, no one will be!"

-I'm not confusing being steadfast and being suicidal!-

"We always do what we can! Regardless of the consequences!"

-Running to your meaningless death?!-

"MAYBE NO ONE ELSE SHOULD LOSE A SISTER LIKE I DID! NEVER AGAIN! NOT WHILE I CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

Lucy looked taken aback for a second before she scrawled in large letters.

-WELL MAYBE MIRA SHOULDN'T HAVE TO LOSE BOTH OF HER SIBLINGS!-

Elfman felt a pain in his heart.

"So what? I should have given up on her?"

-Yes.- Lucy looked unhappy, but dead serious.

"How can someone so bright be so cold?" Elfman asked her, his voice cracking.

She looked like he had just slapped her in the face.

Her face went from shocked to downcast.

-Don't move around until tomorrow, we need to sail back to Hargion with the girls ASAP.-

She turned to exit, not before Elfman saw the shine of tears escaping her.

His breath caught as he saw her back.

Her cloths were torn and blood flowed in a trickle down her back from the long but shallow gash.

Areas not covered by the red of blood or scratches was filled with old scars.

 _How had she not noticed the blood and the slash?_

 _And how did she get those scars?_

* * *

 _He thinks i'm some kind of monster._

Lucy sobbed as she exited the clinic, ignoring the nurse calling out to her as she walked out. "Wait miss! You're blee…"

She just ran away.

The town passed her by as she ran.

Familiar sights and old blurred together as she rushed through.

 _What will everyone else think?_

 _What would Mira or Levy or Cana think if they saw that?_

 _Would Makarov still think I am such a good cause?_

 _What would Natsu say?_

Tears stung her eyes.

 _I just don't want to lose anyone else._

She kept running, trying to find a place to cry properly.

Without interruption.

* * *

Lucy found nothing.

All the familiar spots had changed into something foreign, the old jetty; collapsed. The small park with the fountain full of green water and moss; Dead and trampled plants and now home to rickety shacks and shady stalls.

There's one place left. Lucy thought as she walked up to it.

An old building with a few scorch marks on it.

There was a sign holder out the front.

'The Taste Kitchen.'

 _Salt's old restaurant. My old home._

She swiped away her tears before slowly walked into the dingy restaurant.

It was a lot more decrepit than she remembered.

It must have changed hands.

Seeing her old home in such a dismal state did not help her mood.

But at least she didn't feel helpless now. It was growing into anger.

 _Even this is gone. Well, I know one thing that will be there._

A pretty woman walked up to her. "Aite, what can I get you?" she asked sounding bored.

-There's a chest in this building's attic that can't be moved or opened. I would like to take it off your hands.-

"How do you…?"

-Because it's mine.-

"Alright, it's 2,000 jewl to get it back." She looked a bit more interested now. And very greedy.

Lucy's eyes narrowed and her expression darkened.

-I was being nice in asking. I am taking my belongings back, not buying them.-

"Then we may have a proble..."

She only got halfway through drawing her knife before Lucy clocked her on the side of the head.

Her blood boiled over as she seethed with anger.

Some patrons and staff went to the girl's aid.

Lucy swept the girl's knife up in her hand, sending it spinning through her hands to test its weight and balance.

She wasn't surprised when steel shone in her attacker's hands.

Everyone in thunder cove had knifes. It was almost an unwritten rule at this point.

 _Too bad I don't have my own knife with me. This would be so much easier._

Her lips quivered in a smile. This was the exact place that Mary trained her to use her Knife. The Center of the restaurant floor.

" _Aggression and apparent recklessness always puts off your opponent. Like the Berserkers of Old, they used to keep fighting through pain and wounds. They acted as if they were men possessed to strike fear into their enemies. So try it. Make your foe afraid. Have fun."_ Mary's Words and sinister but mischievous whisper echoed in her mind.

Whenever the redhead fought, she had a savage look on her face. She was very quick to laugh maniacally and her knifes were usually dripping, as red as her hair. Insanity blazing in her eyes.

 _I'll make you proud Mary._

Lucy's mind snapped back into focus.

She rushed at her attackers, her knife meeting an incoming swing and sending the knife spiraling away

A small side roll took her behind a rough and muscled woman.

The Blonde sent a vicious backhand to her opponent's head, the hilt of her knife crashing into the woman's skull and knocking her out cold.

The remaining three fighters stood back.

Their skill showed in their stance and poise.

One skilled opponent was a challenge.

Two would be tricky.

Three; Nightmare.

But Lucy was already hopped up on her anger and adrenalin.

Cold focus set over her.

Three knives, three people to watch.

The left man's muscles bunched.

Lucy took half a step back exactly as the man lunged, his arm plunging down in a vicious swipe.

His blade swept past her, and she lifted her own knife so his forearm would drag against her knife on the way down.

He leapt back, cursing as he glanced at the new gash on his arm.

She feinted forward to make it look like she was going to pursue him.

The center man made a clumsy swipe that bit through air.

She lifted her leg and delivered a kick straight into the face of the now off balance fighter.

He fell to the floor, seeing metaphorical stars.

The other two were smarter, taking on defensive stances and giving her space.

-So, can i go upstairs and get my chest now?-

One of the fighters blinked and lowered the knife. "You mean the one in the attic? if it'll get you to leave then…"

"Screw that! And screw this bitch! I won't be made a mockery of!" The other one yelled.

He advanced carefully, sending quick thrusts and very controlled swipes at her.

 _Probing strikes._ Lucy thought as she took small steps back with his every attempt at hitting her.

She stepped forwards with his latest thrust and tried to sweep her knife across his arm.

He jumped back.

Lucy could see it in his face, he knew they were evenly matched.

They stood there, circling. Changing stances all the while, trying to get the upper hand in terrain or position.

' _Remember girl. Always watch the knife, and the muscles in his thigh.'_

 _Kinda difficult to see his muscles through a shirt Mary._ Lucy spat angrily to the memory of the redhead.

 _Wait…_

His shirt seemed to crece ever so slightly.

 _Is that what she meant?_

' _Remember, Duck, roll, stab! This is my signature move, you will get it right honey!'_ Another memory of Mary played, beaten into her through the long hours of training.

Time seemed to slow as the man started moving.

He was betting everything on this thrust, he had committed to it. She could see it in his feet.

Lucy tucked her head down and let her body fall like a puppet with her strings cut.

Her leg pushed her forward as hard as she could and leaned her shoulder forward.

She rolled cleanly, and used the momentum to tumble to her feet.

Her knife hand was over her shoulder as she half turned.

The knife plunged into the man's shoulder.

he yelled in pain as Lucy swept his feet out from under him.

-Are we done now?-

The last man put his knife away and raised his hands. "You, that...that was just like her. Bloody Maria"

-Yeah. I was taught by her.-

"Wait, if the chest in the attic is yours, then that means…"

Lucy ducked her head down.

"Salt's star...You are Salt Morris' Star."

She gave a small nod.

He just stared at her. "You don't need me to show you where it is. This used to be your home. It's all yours. I don't want to pick a fight with you."

-Your waitress wanted to sell it back to me.-

"I'll have a chat with her."

Lucy turned and walked into the Kitchen.

The young chef stared at her as she entered, having seen the fight from the pass.

She ignored him as she looked around.

The massive notch in the shelves from a meat cleaver, the burn marks on the ceiling from Salt's mischief, and the wall covered with pockmarks from knives, skewers or other projectiles. There were even still tiny shards of plates everywhere from some of their fights.

She walked up the stairs slowly. She sighed as her feeling of anger and helpless sorrow escaped her. It was a nice fight.

Lucy realised that her time with the Taste Kitchen was like being in Fairy Tail.

They were a family, blood ties or no. They loved each other.

Brawls, arguments, shouting matches, none of it mattered. Sure it was fun and at times cathartic. But it didn't change anything at the end of the day.

Her old room was dusty and filled with boxes.

The chest and her old dresser filled with her and the new owners' cloths, were the only items left she recognised.

She couldn't quite smile. The sorrow was overpowering her nostalgia.

Lucy picked one of her old cloaks out of the dresser and swept it over her shoulders. It was a bit small for her, not quite falling down past her bottom, but the hood was still big enough.

The chest commanded her attention. She laid a hand on the lid, the small legs on the chest disappeared and the chest snapped open.

 _I'm glad Salt got me this chest._

All her important things, her most treasured possessions.

Her eyes scathed over everything, looking for it.

There.

A Blue Lacrama swirling with grey clouds.

A Memory Lacrama.

Something else caught her attention. She didn't remember putting many of the items in the chest. She picked up a familiar roll of thick cloths and slowly unrolled it.

Inside shone a superb steel.

" _A chef's knives are their babies Lucy-girl. we care for them, and they do exactly what we want. So take care of my baby. Clean and sharpen her well before you give her back." Salt instructed her firmly as he handed her a small knife to prepare her vegetables._

He had put them in her chest before he died.

A tear dripped onto the chef's knife, the blue tinted wavy patterned steel shining dully back at her.

She wrapped up the roll filled with her mentor and foster father's prized possession and placed them back in the chest.

 _Thank you._

She shut the chest slowly, picking it up and taking it, walking out the door.

* * *

 _Boooored._ Natsu thought as he spat another fireball at the baldie, who was treading water out there.

One of the girls knew water magic, and was keeping him from getting away, but she wasn't strong enough to reel him in.

So they were stuck there, tormenting him.

All the other girls were trying to keep themselves occupied, playing games, fixing their cloths, chatting, some even had some sticks they were using as practice weapons for sparring.

It would have been a dream come true for many men, but not for the dragon slayer/occasional dragon diligently guarding them.

"Something on your mind?" The girl controlling the water around their victim asked. She was standing next to him, staring at the speck in the water that was the bald man.

"Just boooored." Natsu moaned. "Happy and Lucy ain't here, and messin' with baldie out there is getting lame."

"Sorry I'm not strong enough to reel him in."

Natsu flapped his hand Lazily.

The girl looked at him sidelong.

"Is that guy who saved my sister ok?"

"Elfman? Psht. He's gotten worse than that and been back up in minutes. He's fine." Natsu yawned. "What was your sister's name? Tuna?"

"Tina. Do you boys always have food on your mind?" She chuckled.

Natsu snorted. "As if. There's always fighting to do too. Grey needs his daily dose of my fist to his face."

The girl shook her head.

"Wait, speaking of food, If we are staying here tonight, what are we going to do about food and bedding? The rags and clothes those pirates gave us are filthy."

Natsu grinned at her. "Lucy already thought of that. She sent Happy back to the guild for reinforcements before we started our attack."

"You sound as if you like this Lucy." She replied softly.

"Well yeah, she's really strong and smart, and she's a great friend."

The girl sighed and shook her head again. "That's not what I…"

"Natsu!" Happy called from across the cavern.

"Fairy Tail's Team Shadowgear has arrived!" Droy called as he and Jet followed Levy into the cave.

"DON'T FORGET THE BOOZE FAIRY!" Cana cackled as she stumbled after the team.

Happy flew into Natsu's arms and he sobbed. "Natsu! Save me! Cana's been squishing me all the way here!"

"Did she now? CANA! You've scared happy! Ima deck you in the face!"

"ohhh, Natsu's here! Natsu! C'mere, I wanna cuddle but Happy and Levy dun wana!"

Uh oh.

She was making her way towards Natsu quite quickly considering she looked extremely drunk.

"Uh, Tuna's sister…" Natsu turned his head towards her. "What is your name?"

"Serena."

"Hey Cana! Serena here would love to snuggle with you!"

Cana was on top of her in a heartbeat and pulled her to the ground.

"Tha's so sweeeet, and you're sooooft and cuuudly tooooo." Cana purred, her arms holding serena in a deathgrip, her legs tangled with the other girl's.

"Agh, wait, noooo…" Serena struggled and tried to escape the drunk girl.

Cana just held on obliviously and stuck her head in the crook of Serena's neck and did something that made Serena gasp.

"Please don't do that...nuhhh…."

"Mmmmm, sooooft." Cana giggled with a hiccup.

"Well," Happy announced. "She's a lost cause."

"Wait, me or the raging drunk?" Serena asked as Natsu started walking away to meet Levy.

"Don't just stick her on me and leave!" She called sounding outraged. "Hey, I...mph!"

Cana had planted her lips over Serena's.

"Shhhhhh, I dun like yelling snugglebuddies." She whispered loudly into her lips.

Natsu and Levy just looked at Serena's boggled eyes and just glanced at each other.

"Um…" Levy started.

"Yeah." Natsu just scratched his head. "So why…?"

"Mira left the locked liquor cabinet unlocked for two minutes. Cana picked up the first bottle she saw and drank it. It was a bottle of blackbird, second generation magically fortified Spirits."

Levy glanced behind her before whispering. "Worth just a bit less than Lucy's bounty."

"Bounty?" Happy asked at a whisper.

Natsu immediately turned to face her, his eyes looking all around.

Jet and droy were organising some packs full of provisions out of earshot.

Cana was giggling as she rolled around on the floor, taking Serena with her.

And Serena herself was gasping and struggling to get out of Cana's clutches.

"You know about that?" Natsu whispered back.

Levy nodded. "So does Cana and Master Makarov."

"I already told the old man."

"I know."

"Lucy has a bounty?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, but it's our secret Happy." Levy whispered to him as he sat in Natsu's shoulder.

"Ah crap! Baldie!" Natsu raced to the edge of the pier and looked out.

He had a piece of driftwood in his hands and was slowly and weakly paddling away.

Natsu breathed in and Blasted a stream of fire in front of the man to get him to stop.

"HEY BALDIE! I ALREADY TOLD YA NOT TO GO ANYWHERE!"

The small figure stopped moving.

"Alright!" Natsu spun around to address Levy. "Can you reel this guy in?

"Um, not very quickly. Runes will take time, and Solid script doesn't work over super Long distances like this without taking much more energy."

"Tch, back to square one. Actually not even square one, square Zero, cuz Cana's interrupted Serena and she was the only thing keeping baldie trapped there! Great Job Cana!"

Cana hiccuped and had a seductive look on her face as she purred. "I aim to pleeease."

"Ah man, we've really lost her this time. And she's the one who has all the supplies." Happy bemoaned.

"Wait really? how…" Natsu cut off when he sniffed the air.

He spun around and cried. "Lucy!"

Lucy wandered up to them, a wooden chest under her arm.

"Lu!" Levy dived at her for a hug.

She looked surprised, but hugged the smaller girl back fiercely.

-Hi guys.-

As they parted Natsu saw Levu cringe and raise her hands.

They were red with Blood.

"Ohmygosh, Lu!"

"Lucy?" Natsu asked.

-What's wrong?- She saw Levy's hands. -oh.-

Natsu saw Lucy try and look over her back.

-Damn it. I just put this cloak on.- She took it off and surveyed the blood on it.

Natsu's focus was on her back, the long scratch bleeding sluggishly.

Levy was just staring at Lucy's back in utter shock.

He remembered that Levy hadn't seen her scars yet. Along with her wound it was a grisly sight.

"Levy, can you script up some water?" Natsu asked while poking her, trying to snap her out of her trance. "Levy?"

"uh? um...yeah sure." The word WATER popped into existence with a swipe of her light pen.

"Hey happy? Got Lucy's clothes?"

"Aye sir!" He cried jubilantly as he picked them up from near where Natsu had been sitting.

"Alright Luce! Strip."

Levy choked as Lucy scowled.

-Again, what is it with you and getting me naked?-

Natsu just shrugged indifferently.

"Ok, have it your way."

He walked over to her slowly.

Her eyes widened as she took a step back.

-You wouldn't-

Lucy was lifted up by his strong arms.

"What wouldn't I do?" He asked innocently as he walked towards the floating word of water as Lucy struggled and made unhappy noises.

* * *

Natsu's arms were very tight around her as she struggled.

She just got her arm free before she was unceremoniously dumped into the water.

Lucy's head barely stayed above water as she struggled.

Another indignant cry escaped her lips as her stolen low quality clothes were ripped off of her.

He wiped down her back with the old cloth and the blood mixed in with the water.

Lucy was pulled out of the water and deposited onto her feet, naked and dripping wet in front of Levy and Natsu.

She crossed her arms and glared daggers at Natsu.

-Are you done?-

He wasn't. He set himself on fire and walked around her.

Intense Heat washed over her, and she felt the water disappearing from her body.

Within moments she was dry.

"There you go. Don't forget to do your star thingie." Natsu grinned cheerfully as he put himself out and handed over her cloths.

-I'll say it again. Lack of subtlety is a guild wide thing.- Lucy scrawled as she unfurled her cloths and started to put them on.

Her stars lit up in her hands and began swirling around her as she set her key and dagger pouches back on her thighs.

"Wait till you meet Erza." Levy muttered to her. She raised her voice as she turned to her teammates. "Jet! Droy! How is the setup?"

"Almost done Levy!" They called in unison.

"Right. I'll try and get the supplies out of Cana."

Levy drew closer to Lucy as she finished dressing.

"Can I talk to you later Lu?"

Lucy nodded slowly.

Levy drew the blonde girl into a hug and giggled. "These stars of yours tickle."

She drew away and gave Lucy a smile before she joined her teammates.

Lucy scowled as she turned to Natsu. -You didn't need to scrub me like a baby.-

"Corse not. I wanted to."

Lucy rolled her eyes at this, letting the five stars fade.

"Hey Luce?"

She hummed back a 'yes?'

"Can you reel in baldie? He's still out there." Natsu pointed out to the sea.

She could see a small figure in the water in the evening light.

She smirked as she picked Aquarius' Key out of her pocket and stuck it into the water word.

The doorbell sounded and she appeared in a flash of light.

Aquarius surveyed lucy up and down.

"Tch. What do you want girlie?"

-Could you please drag that asshole over here without destroying the ship please?-

"No promises."

Water crashed in the distance and suddenly the bald man was flying in on a wave.

The man was thrown onto the small wooden pier.

The wave rocked the ship and crashed over the edge of the docks showering everyone who was near the water's edge.

Natsu had rope in hand and was working on making the man look like a mummy.

"Hic! WOOO CAMPING TRIP, WATER PARK AND SLUMBER PARTY IN ONE! YAHAAAA!" Cana screeched drunkenly as she rolled around in the puddle.

* * *

Team Shadowgear had finally wrestled the supplies off Cana, convincing the Monumentally drunk Brunette to take the needed items out of her card Dimensions.

"I neeeeed to figur ou how ter get pepl in theese." Cana burped, waving her cards around. "I cn have a protable snuglbdyy."

She still had Serena in her arms, the girl having resigned herself to her fate.

Levy had noticed the girl's lack of struggle and patted her on the shoulder.

"Blackbird is a slow burning Alcohol. She's slurring, so she'll be unconscious soon."

"Comforting." Serena Deadpanned back at the short girl. "I have been violated enough for the night.

"Mmmmm, I bg t' difffrr." Cana barely uttered, one of her hands slipping under the girl's shirt.

Levy just shook her head and stood up to survey the scene.

If there was a bit more plant life than the meger moss, weeds and half dead blackberries, this would be utopia.

Natsu was sitting under the makeshift flat grill, his head on fire as Lucy cooked on it.

Lucy was feeding him morsels as she cooked and she even got one of the girls to bring him a lit torch from their campfire for an extra snack.

The girls were scattered all around, helping Lucy cook, crowded around Jet as he told stories about Fairy Tail, helping Droy make beds out of his plant magic and weaving vines for hammocks.

Some of the girls were playing ball games with great enthusiasem.

Gaggles of others chatted among the sidelines, cheering at goals or good catches.

But other things weighed on Levy's mind as she watched Cana as she slowly settled down.

Lucy had never shown her the extent of her scars, but Natsu had seemed completely unphased by it.

 _But he does seem...protective of her._

Levy knew how smart Natsu was. He wasn't a genius by any means, but he wasn't as foolish as he made out to be.

After Erza forced him into Learning to read, he had often come by to ask her for advice on books.

She had teased him once about it, but never did it again.

She hadn't liked the depressed Natsu it lead to, so she had immediately apologised and given him one of her books to make up for it.

 _But he seemed to be acting goofier than usual._

Levy bit her lip as she thought.

 _Lucy did suggest things to bring, so how had she known they would be effective? The ballgames, good food, blankets, card games…_

 _It's like a summer retreat in here, almost no indication these girls remembered they were going to be kidnapped and sold into slavery._

She realised the activities were a very good distraction.

Hm. May as well get my hands into it as well while I think.

"Hey Lu, what can I do to help?" She asked, walking over to the cooking table.

* * *

Night had fallen, and only the smallest of lacrama lamps flickered for the girls who needed a night light.

Cana had released Serena and was in a drunken stupor, totally out cold.

Levy was tired out from keeping up with the speed of Lucy's cooking.

She and her teammates all lay in a row.

Serena and her sister Tina who Elfman had saved were laying together, peaceful looks on their faces.

Natsu himself was on a hammock, keeping half an eye on Lucy next to him who lay sleeping on a bed made of Droy's vines. Like most other girls in the cavern.

Elfman lay on Natsu's other side, not quite sleeping. Snoozing.

Something had puzzled him when Elfman had come back from the clinic.

After receiving Levy's enthusiastic hug, Natsu's light punch in the arm and administering Jet and Droy's beration on their lack of Manliness, Lucy had walked up to him.

-I'm glad you are all right.-

Elfman had looked uncomfortable as he replied. "Thanks."

Then, the awkward silence.

He had asked Elfman what happened and where she got the chest from.

An odd look crossed his face and he said he didn't know where she got the chest.

He didn't say anything else.

Natsu grumbled to himself as he dozed.

Waiting for Lucy's nightmares.

She hadn't wanted to share a Hammock with him.

He lit a small flame on his fingertip, the size of a candle.

Moving his finger around and watching it flicker.

"Natsu? What are you doin'?" Elfman rumbled drowsily from his bed.

"Waiting." He whispered back.

"For what?"

He didn't answer as he turned the flame around on his fingers, making it jump.

Fire itself. It was hypnotic, warm, powerful. But he knew all too well how much it could burn.

A noise jerked him out of his revere.

A whimpering moan. The smell of cold sweat.

"That." Natsu swung out of the hammock and looked at Lucy.

She was beginning to squirm in her bed, shivering.

"Lucy." He firmly whispered to her as he slowly and gently put a hand on her shoulder.

Eyes pursed shut and eyebrows furrowed, she continued to shiver.

"Lucy, wake up."

He saw her eyes snap open and immediately leaned Left.

Her knife appeared and whistled upwards, barely sailing past his ear.

"It's me Lucy. It's me." He leaned in to look in her bleary, tear flooded eyes as he gently stroked her hair.

"It's alright, I got you."

She let out a shaky but relieved sigh before she went limp again.

He watched her eyelids slowly flutter shut.

Picking her up, Natsu walked over to his hammock and sat down on it before rotating so he was laying in it.

He positioned her next to him and held a hand to the bottom of her cheek, checking her breathing and pulse.

Satisfied, he breathed out.

"What was that? She nearly skewered you!" Elfman whispered hotly.

"Nightmares. Another minute and she would have been screaming. Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."

Natsu followed his own advice too.

Within minutes he was drifting off to sleep.

The smell of starlight engulfing him.

* * *

A/N:Who likes drunk Cana? I do! I do!  
Anyone want to know how I plan my update schedule? A dart board. Loljk. I don't plan. Whatever comes will come.  
I rly want to update my earlier chapters. Maybe 1-3. I also need to do the next part on my other story.  
I also have Ideas on new stories. Many stories. Such time lack.


	15. Sailing & Sinking

You are correct, I haven't updated in a while. I'll cover that below, but for now a warning, it gets heavy.

* * *

Lucy woke to a comfortable warmth.

Natsu again.

She peeked through her eyes, seeing the sunrise in the cavern's opening. She just closed her eyes again, feeling so comfortable and warm that she didn't want to move.  
She shifted her head, trying to burrow her face further into her pillow.

Natsu snorted in his sleep and mumbled. "nuuh...Luce that ticklesss."

Lucy's eyes opened slowly.

 _Oh_. She thought, her face going red.

Her head was laying half on his shoulder, half on his chest. She was faced towards him, just tilting her head up would have her staring at his face. She had her hand resting on the center of his chest.

Lucy slowly worked on shifting herself so she could climb out of the hammock without waking Natsu.

It felt like forever until she was able to lift herself out of the swinging sleeping contraption.

"Have a good sleep Luce?"

She turned to see he had one bleary eye open, watching her.

Lucy put on a fake scowl. -You want to get me in your bed so badly?-

His lips widened in a sleepy, but no less Natsu smile. "I just prefer the Hammock. We can go into your bed Next time if you want."

-Why sir, it is improper for a gentleman to be in a Lady's bed in such a manner-

He blew a puff of smoke in her face before chuckling. "Hah. Gentleman."

She blinked and coughed from the smoke, then gave him a light punch in the gut.

"Omph." He wheezed before grinning. "Look on your face, worth it."

She just gave him an unimpressed look through half lidded eyes. He simply turned over and settled in to snooze.

 _Alright!_ Lucy thought as she turned around, a smile on her face. _Breakfast and then we set sail._

* * *

"Luce, you sure I can't just walk?"

-No- She wrote, before she scrawled in huge and bold -ALL ABOARD!-

This time instead of sorrow and tears, the girls boarded with cheer and enthusiasm. They were all eager to get back home. Somehow a giant beach ball was being thrown around while all this was happening.

"Lucy, why do we have to go to hargeon on a boat?"

-serves you right for wanting to sleep with me so much.-

"So I'm getting punished because I don't want you to get nightmares?"

-It's the quickest way there. It'll be over before you know it.-

"Fine." Natsu sighed as he walked slowly onto the gangplank.

As soon as his foot touched the boat he collapsed to the deck, clutching his stomach and his mouth.

The girls who were boarding behind him mostly just laughed at him, a few ignored him, and only one of them knelt down to help him.

Lucy just chuckled quietly to herself.

She squeezed the chest under her arm, just to make sure it was there.

-Where's Cana?- She wrote to no one in particular.

Serena appeared beside her and sighed. "We put her in the captain's cabin, and you teammates are stringing up a hammock there too. It may help your friend with his motion sickness."

-He'll still be whining- Lucy wrote with a smile. -But instead of 'I hate carriages' it'll be 'I hate boats'.-

She shrugged in response.

"Lucy." Jet appeared in front of her. "I've done a once over on the place, everything is packed, and everyone's on board."

-Let's get this show on the road-

* * *

The wind whipped by her as she stood on the front of the boat on the second story deck.

The boat itself was stupid and ugly, an open wooden deck on the bottom story, with what looked like marble columns stretching up to support the second story .

Lucy had the ship navigation controller in her hands, expertly adjusting the settings. It looked like a thick tablet made of some kind of plastic, an array of buttons and slides sprinkled over the surface.

Hearing footsteps, Lucy half turned to see Levy approaching.

"Well, Natsu isn't throwing up at least. Elfman is keeping him company downstairs."

She hummed an 'uh-huh' in response as she tinkered with the tool in her hands.

"Well, I'd say you did pretty well considering this is your first job." Levy leaned against the railing with a sigh. "Nothing major destroyed, criminals captured, girls saved."

Lucy didn't agree.

-Elfman could have died, and that fight could have gone differently if Laxus hadn't shown up. It would have been me against 20 pirates and 2 mages. I could have done better.-

"Come on Lu, you did fine."

Lucy hmmed. She didn't want to argue it, but she still didn't think Levy was right. She could have done better.

-So what did you want to talk about before?- She wrote, keeping half an eye on the controls while watching Levy sidelong.

"I saw your scars when Natsu...you know..."

-Tore my clothes off?-

"Yeah."

The blue haired girl paused awkwardly. She seemed hesitant to ask.

Lucy sighed and bit the bullet. -That is part of my past.-

She placed the Navigation tablet back into it's holder on the railing and reached down to the chest at her feet.

It popped open from her touch.

The memory Lacrama glowed on the top of the collection.

"How much did that lacrama cost? That is the largest I have seen in that quality." Levy looked amazed. "It could hold months worth of memories."

-I stole it.- Lucy's eyes latched onto Levy. -Does that surprise you? I did practically grew up with pirates.-

The blue haired girl did look a little uncertain.

Lucy sighed.

-I stole it from a corrupted, evil, and cruel Rune Knight General.-

"There's no such thing as Pure Evil." Levy objected.

-I thought that once. That notion dies very quickly after you survive your first Torture.-

Horror filled her friend's face.

"Torture?" She whispered.

Lucy nodded numbly. -Not just once. Five times. The scar on my neck that I showed you before, that was done by my stepmother. My first torture.-

Levy just stared at her, speechless.

Lucy reached into the chest, searching the very bottom.

She pulled out several more memory lacrimas, the size of large marbles.

Five of them.

-My Adoptive father/Mentor got me to record my Tortures on these Memory Lacrama- Lucy shook her head. -When he first found me, I was surviving torture number three. He Barged straight into a Dark guild's camp staggering drunk and asking for the bathroom.-

She smiled as she remembered. -As soon as he saw me, he just staggered over to me. He whispered 'I'll get you out of here.', pulls out a blindfold and puts it on me, then all I hear are the sweet screams and cries for Mercy from the people who broke me.-

Lucy shivered in maniacal delight. -When he was done, he took me to his home. Helped me, put me back together. He fixed my flinches, taught me how to cook and fight, but most of all he practically adopted me. He loved me.-

Levy just looked at her. Conflicted, bewildered, Awed, Scared. Everything was on her face.

"I'm not even sure where to begin." Her voice trailed weakly.

-Take your time, we have a few hours of travel left.-

* * *

Natsu stared at the cabin ceiling. He couldn't even leave the hammock or he would collapse in a puddle of puke.

He was booooooored. Agaaaaain.

Elfman was in the cabin with him, doing exercises and showing his remarkable resilience and recovery speed.

He was currently on sit-ups, each grunt of effort came out as "Man...ly..Man...ly...Man...two hundred...man...ly…"

Natsu now perfectly understood Lucy's extremely annoyed expression as they traveled to Thunder Cove. It was a wonder she hadn't hit them. Natsu was fighting the urge to put his Manly fist in Elfman's Manly face.

And thinking of Lucy…

He was sure something had happened between her and Elfman. She would always tense up when he was around her, and Elfman was was almost ignoring her with unhappiness written on his face.

"Elfman." Natsu needed to know.

"Yeah?" He grunted back.

"What happened?"

"With what?"

"Lucy."

Elfman, stopped the exercise and lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.

"Come on. Out with it already."

Elfman hesitated. Natsu's sense of smell wasn't as good as when he was a dragon, but he could still smell a whiff of uncertainty.

Natsu waited patiently, something he wasn't good at.

"She told me I should have abandoned Tina, when she was trapped. With a bomb at her feet. Scared out of her mind."

Natsu blinked. That didn't sound like her. Elfman had no reason to lie though.

 _So why would she say that?_

There must be more to it than that.

"Why?"

"She told me I was being reckless. I told her I had to do something." Elfman bowed his head. "I lost my temper and…"

Elfman just stayed silent after that.

Natsu didn't push it any further. He'd talk to Lucy later.

* * *

Elfman had left the cabin soon after Natsu had questioned him.

Now Natsu was alone with his thoughts.

Lucy strode in, the chest under her arm.

He sat up in his hammock, and she slowly set herself down next to him.

"Elfman told me about your talk."

She stiffened.

"He said you told him off from saving Tina."

-I didn't, I just didn't want him to be so reckless. He could have gotten killed.-

"Elfman wouldn't lose his temper at that."

Lucy hesitated.

-He told, no yelled at me, he didn't want anyone else to lose a sister like he did.-

 _Lisanna_

-It's just, I like Mira, and Elfman. I just don't want to lose anyone else, or to suffer what I did.-

Lucy looked up, meeting Natsu's eyes.

-does that make me cold? wanting to protect my friends?-

"No"

He waited, watching her.

She just stayed still.

"What would you have done in Elfman's place?" Natsu asked her gently.

She just closed her eyes as she wrote -the same.-

"Exactly the same?"

-To the bitter end If I needed to.-

A tear crawled down her cheek.

-I know what it's like to lose a sister too. It's horrible.-

"Lisanna was like a sister to me too."

Natsu hesitated. "Do..you want me to tell you about her?"

Lucy nodded, watching him bleary eyed.

"Lisanna was like….a ray of sunshine. She was always sweet and nice like Mira is now. She's even the one that helped me hatch and raise Happy."

"Aye!" The blue furball yawned sleepily from Natsu's other side.

Lucy leaned over to poke him.

-You hatched from an egg?- She smiled dryly. -And you call me weird.-

"Thanks" He yawned back happily.

Natsu chuckled at his friend's reaction before lapsing back into silence.

"I…."

He swallowed.

The lump stuck in his throat.

It was still hard to talk about, even to Lucy

"I...I hurt her."

Her dark brown eyes gazed at him gently, no judgement in her eyes.

"When I transformed one time...there were vulcans...they were going to hurt her."

He took a ragged breath in.

"I took them down, easily. But then…I was angry..."

He traced his hand down his forearm.

"It was this big. Exactly this big. It started here, covering her arm to her wrist."

He pointed to the area on the upper side of his forearm.

"I felt like shit. That I was trash, garbage. I hurt my friend. I caused them pain and scared them."

-It wasn't your fault.-

"I was told that so many times. When gildarts changed me back and got me out of my cave, Mira beat the shit out of me and screamed all the while. Is it stupid that I felt better when she was beating me up than when someone said that?"

-You felt like you deserved it.-

His eyes met hers again.

 _Yeah, she's right._

-I know the feeling.-

"Did you ever…?" He paused, not completing his sentence.

-Yes. My best friend. I considered her my sister. We knew each other for years.-

"What happened?" Natsu couldn't keep his voice from cracking.

She hesitated.

-I can't….tell you. I can't stop crying whenever…-

Lucy's hand reached into the chest at her side, retrieving a memory lacrima.

Natsu reached out a hand, waited for her nod as a 'go ahead' and touched the crystal.

* * *

Everything hurt.

Angry red burns littered her arms and stomach.

It Burned

Blood oozed from cuts caused by sharp objects that had been dragged across her skin.

Raging….

Bruises covered her.

...Thundering…

Her leg was broken.

….PAIN

The single room wooden house that served as a prison was unimportant.

She was on her knees, next to Nia.

Her pretty face, once filled with every emotion sweet, positive and outgoing, was filled with pain.

Nia wasn't much better off than she was. Worse in some respects.

One of her eyes was shut and bleeding.

The only thing Lucy could focus on was what had come from her sister's lips.

"I can't take this. Please...help me end my life."

Lucy could only stare at her in disbelief and shock.

"Please Lucy, I can't do it on my own."

Tears stung her eyes as she violently shook her head.

 _No...she couldn't._

"I'm not strong enough. I won't last much longer. I would rather you do it, than they do."

Lucy met Nia's eyes.

She was serious.

"Please. For me?"

 _I can see why she would want to, but why me? Please? Why me?_

 _Why is this happening to me? I don't want to do this, but I love her too much to let her suffer when she asked me not to._

 _WHY AM I EVEN CONSIDERING THIS?_

 _But she's in so much pain, even I haven't felt this bad since…_

 _Last time. We already proved it last time. We can make it._

 _But Nia has never been strong._

 _She's my sister…._

 _She can't take it._

 _I love her._

 _That's why it's so hard._

Lucy choked back tears.

"Hey, you don't need to cry now. You've always been the strong one. You can do it. I know you can."

She felt her hand being taken up.

Nia cradled her hand against her chest.

 _No, don't do that...I can feel your heartbeat..._

"I'm ready."

The determination in those eyes made Lucy crumble.

Her tears didn't stop.

Lucy leaned down and kissed her sister on the cheek.

"I Love you too Lucylu. Just make me a promise?"

She nodded firmly.

 _I'm about to end your life for you, I'll do anything you ask._

"Don't remember me like this. Remember I'll always love you. And most of all- live on. For me?"

Lucy nodded.

"Thank you, now come one. Be strong and brave. You can do it."

Her hands trembled as she raised them to Nia's face.

One hand gently clamping her nose, the other covering her mouth.

It was horrible.

Nia jerked as her body fought against her will.

The calmness and the love in her eyes as they slowly closed broke her heart.

A sob threatened to escape her, but she didn't want it to show. She could be strong for her.

The pieces of her broken heart fell into a void as she felt the life leave her loved one.

She stopped moving.

Nia was gone.

Emptiness.

Sorrow.

She completely broke down. Her sobs became uncontrollable.

Her broken heart was poured into every cry of sorrow.

Time had no meaning.

Hours?

Lucy didn't care.

She stopped crying at some point.

The sound of a door creaking open caught her attention.

"Wakey wakey little toys." A man sneered.

There was something in the void of emotions. It was a little flicker of flame that burned in her gut.

"Up you get!" He grabbed Nia, attempting to get her to wake up.

 _Oh, that's what the emotion was. Hate. Anger. Rage._

"What the hell? Dead? It was fine yesterday." The body landed on the floor again.

Fire burned in her guts, every single fiber of her being dedicated to that focus.

His eyes met hers.

The man took a step back. "You did it?" He whispered.

He seemed unnerved.

"Well, maybe the master will get a kick out of that. Come on, get up and…"

* * *

The memory cut off.

-There's important nothing after that. Just pain.-

Natsu just sat, dumbfounded.

Another person she had lost.

By her own hand this time.

Suddenly, Natsu felt so relieved that Lisanna had held his hand after Mira had finished with him.

" _It's ok Natsu, I'm fine. I forgive you."_

Natsu wrapped his arms around Lucy.

"You did the right thing." He whispered in her ear.

A damp shoulder and silent sobs were his only answer as he held his broken friend tightly.

If only to shield her from the world.

* * *

Sorry, I did warn you. Heavy. It'll get better next chapter. Lots of hugging Levy.  
I am aware how long it has been since I updated. What can I say, I had a block. and work. And fucked up sleeping patterns. And lots of reading. Fuck.  
Oh well, Hargeon then Everlou next! Also considering making the Lulaby arc...considerably shorter.  
All the cool Ideas I have are taking too long getting around to.  
Also-I may be workin on another fic _Fairy Wolf_ , Zelda/FT crossover. Me likie.  
For _A needed dream_ I need more inspiration before I write Ruby &Grey's lil chat.  
Also I have a _fluff dump_ , not too much there, but there may be-If i have any oneshots, experiments, pilots for new fics or lemo...actualy that leads me to a good point.

* * *

Question: Where is the line between Lemon and porn?  
Also A Question: Is there one?

* * *

I did put a little smut into my fluff dump, but I cleaned it of all it's lemonyness. I was wondering if I could...citrus it back up. I did change the ending because of the lack of lemonyness too.

Anywho, peace out. Need sleep.  
PS, anyhoes that have a good Fairy Tail reincarnation OC fic feel free to pm me it.

Anywho, thanks to all you pepes who read mah stuff, reviews(basicly feedback) always apreciated.  
And most of all, have a nice day.


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